It's Not a Good Idea to Make Her Mad at You
by friendofkara
Summary: In which Supergirl practices "El Mayarah" after the events of 4x08 and President Baker is hoist with his own petard.
1. It's not a good Idea to Make Her Mad

" . . . and then he said 'Then I thank you for your service, but you are dismissed effective immediately.' So that's the situation," Supergirl finished.

"He really said all that?" The other person's eyebrows were fully raised.

"I'm quoting him and his aide word for word. So what can I do?" Supergirl asked.

The other woman closed her eyes, fully feeling her rage, and then she carefully reined in her emotions. When she opened her eyes, she appeared perfectly calm to those who didn't know her well.

"You don't do anything. At least, not publicly. This is my fight."

Supergirl knew the other woman well.

"Why is it yours?" the Girl of Steel asked.

Her advisor told her. Then she went on to what she would do. As she worked through the list, Supergirl's face became intent, then horrified.

"You can't be serious!" she interrupted.

"Yes I am, and I'll tell you why," was the reply.

After she had finished, the Girl of Steel launched a counterargument, but her heart wasn't really in it. Half an hour later, she nodded slowly.

"You're right. I wish you weren't, but you are. This is not just about me."

"I knew you'd see it in the end. But even though I'll be doing most of it, I'll still need you to do a few things for me." She grabbed a memo pad, jotted a few notes and tore out the page. "Here's the list."

Supergirl only glanced at it. "And what will you be doing while I do all this flying around?"

"I'll be working my finger to the bone making the phone calls. However, once you've done all that, I'll need you to come back here for a couple of other things. But when you go to his earth, don't forget to give your friend Barry Allen a "Thank you" from me.

Supergirl only rolled her eyes in reply as she left.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Nobody in Washington is surprised when Presidential staffers resign after a new man takes over; even if it's a Vice-President being catapulted into office after his predecessor was exposed as an alien. So the reason a few eyebrows rose at Cat Grant's departure from the Press Secretary position wasn't her going itself, but at its' speed; no-notice resignations from the White House are still relatively rare. But when Cat said, "The President needs a Press Secretary who is not tainted by a longstanding friendship with someone we now know to be an alien," those eyebrows quickly dropped back to their normal positions.

The President was nonchalant: within ten minutes, Cat's deputy was named her successor. If the President's National City visit had been a one day affair, the man would have stayed in Washington, but since President Baker was scheduled to stay over to the next day to make a speech to the National City Chamber of Commerce followed by an appearance on CatCo's "This Evening" (a highly rated interview show that featured between two to four guests hosted by longtime news eminence Robert Walters), the former deputy Press Secretary was en route to National City half an hour later.

And of course, Cat's resignation triggered several other events in National City. Her blind trust instantly reverted to her control, and that included the CatCo shares that Lena Luthor had purchased the voting rights to for as long as Cat was Press Secretary. Which meant that as soon as Cat resigned (at 4:30 that afternoon, just in time to get picked up by the evening news), the Queen of All Media lost no time in picking up the controlling threads of her empire. As CatCo's majority shareholder she requested, and got, a special board meeting at 9 AM the next day, which duly passed a motion restoring Cat to her position as the Chair and CEO of CatCo, with immediate effect.

Lena Luthor was thrilled. Running CatCo had been challenging and rewarding, but running two companies at once had meant that she could not pursue as many of her own private projects at L-Corp as quickly as she would have liked. And the most important of those projects was moving into a critical stage. And Eve Tessmacher resigned, with immediate effect, to join L-Corp and continue working with her.

James Olsen, on the other hand, had mixed feelings. On the one hand, he had done reasonably well as Cat's stand-in. On the other, his self-outing as Guardian meant that he could no longer present himself as an objective journalist. Going back to his old role as Art Department head put him in a position where he could still play a major role in getting the news out, but without compromising CatCo's position.

At 10:15, however, Cat's temporary assistant called the White House Press Office to let them know that Walters had come down with laryngitis, and since Cat Grant was already in National City, she would take on the interview herself.

Neither the Press Office nor the Secret Service blinked. To them, Cat Grant was a known quantity. And they weren't really concerned by the other changes the assistant had mentioned. The other guests were to have been two local politicians, a Congressman and a Senator, but Cat wanted to change the lineup. For some reason, she wanted to substitute local tech wiz / enfant terrible Maxwell Lord and some biochemistry professor none of the agents had ever heard of from a little college up the coast who was presently visiting family in National City.

It wasn't a big deal. The Secret Service has very efficient screening procedures. Max Lord was cleared in five minutes and clearing the professor took only a few minutes more (one of the black ops agencies had a file on her for some reason or other). But the timing meant that it was too late to get the new guests' names listed in the President's Daily Brief. The Secret Service did pass a verbal summary on to the President at the end of his Chamber of Commerce speech, but he made no objection to the changes. He assumed that Cat would interview him first about the politics of the day, then turn to her other guests and talk about science.

That assumption was his second mistake.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

As the interview progressed, President Baker was relaxed. His former press secretary was taking him on the quick tour of some of the issues of the day and asking the softball questions he had expected. As he answered them, he knew he was scoring points with the public. Even when Cat ran a reply of Lockwood's arrest with his attempt to discredit Supergirl for hiding her identity, he was unworried. He would present his views in an even-handed manner, as one above the fray. He thought he had a good chance of picking up some of Lockwood's softer supporters with little downside risk and his political strategists had agreed.

"Your new Press Secretary was asked about your thoughts on this yesterday evening," Cat said, "And he replied that it was a matter for the local authorities. That might play well in Washington, but here in National City, we can't help but know that Supergirl is working with SWAT teams who aren't with the NCPD, as this statement makes clear." The screen behind her showed an NCPD spokesperson denying that a mysterious black-clad group who helped Supergirl take down an alien were NCPD members and then denying that the department was investigating them.

Cat continued: "So those people in black weren't NCPD. They can't be State Police because the State boys have no jurisdiction in National City. Yet the people in black have to be known to the NCPD because they aren't being investigated. So that means that black ops team must be from a Federal agency, which means we have to ask you this question Mr. President; what do you think of Lockwood's statement and what if anything, are you going to do about it?"

"Well, a lot of people, a lot of donors, are asking how we can tolerate Supergirl hiding her identity in a government that is supposed to be for the people." the President replied, "After Lockwood's shined that spotlight on her reticence, her keeping that secret inflames the situation. In this environment, the government can't afford anything less than full transparency from all our assets. So Supergirl has a choice to make, either she keeps her secret or she won't be permitted to volunteer with any federal agency."

"Have you told Supergirl this?" Cat asked.

"Yes, I did. She said her family's best defense was anonymity and so she chose to keep her secret."

"Wait a second, Mr. President," Max Lord interjected, "Lockwood's a liar. He didn't hide behind a mask to protect his family, he hid behind a mask because if he hadn't, the police would have arrested him the first time he appeared in public after he started committing the crimes for which he is presently facing charges: that is murder, blackmail, extortion, destruction of private and public property, theft of government property, the attempted detonation of Shelley Island. And two attempts to kill Supergirl.

"But Supergirl isn't keeping her ordinary name and address to herself, to escape criminal prosecution, there are not now, and there never have been, any charges pending against her. She's reserving that knowledge because she wants to keep her family safe and, I suspect because she wants to have a measure of privacy. All she has done for the past three years is to help people. We needed to find out who Lockwood was in order to charge him, but we don't need to charge Supergirl with anything. So why are you treating her like she's a criminal when she's not one?"

"You missed something, Mr. Lord," the President replied, "Aren't you forgetting that incident three years ago when Supergirl had to be taken out by government agents after she went on a rampage? And why are you supporting Supergirl, when you are on record as being anti-alien in general and anti-Supergirl in particular."

"I haven't been anti-Supergirl since the incident you mention." Lord replied, "And you're forgetting the reason for Supergirl's rampage, which is this: she unwittingly sprang a trap I set targeting some other aliens who turned out to be Kryptonians. They had attacked my facility and piggybacked some of their own software onto my satellites and I knew they would need to access that site to do something else. But when Supergirl sprang my trap, she was exposed to a drug I had devised." Lord said, "And the FBI issued a statement at the time that completely cleared Supergirl from any criminal charges in the incident."

"But it was a damn good thing Supergirl sprang my trap. My trap misfired and produced an effect I didn't anticipate. The drug I used was intended to knock out those other Kryptonians, not to cause them to lose self-control and give way to their worst impulses, which is what happened to Supergirl, but even at her worst, Supergirl never descended to Lockwood's level, let alone to the level of what would have happened if my intended targets had triggered the trap."

Why do you say that?" the President asked.

"Because those Kryptonians did give way to their worst impulses later," Max replied," but by that time some government agents, Supergirl and I had figured out what they were up to and Supergirl had figured out how she could stop them. So it's a good thing when the government and Supergirl work together. If Supergirl had been cut off from working with the government at that time, the only people now living on earth would have been the Kryptonian criminals who tried to hijack my satellites and any other aliens not susceptible to the Kryptonians manipulations."

"What are you talking about?" the President asked.

"Everybody in National City knows about the day three years ago when we all found ourselves waking up in a different place in the middle of the day. Remember?" Max asked the audience. And you might remember, from the news reports that CatCo published at the time, that our sleepwalking was brought about by an alien attack on my satellites."

Everybody in the audience nodded.

"What wasn't published at the time was that the aliens were Kryptonians," Lord continued, "After they'd piggybacked on to my satellites they sent out a radio wave they called Myriad, which effectively turned almost all of us into automatons before I could turn off what they'd done. However, by the time they'd launched the wave, I'd figured out what they were planning, and I'd produced a couple of blockers. I used the first one myself and I gave the other to Cat Grant here, because I knew she worked closely with Supergirl (at which Cat nodded her agreement). I knew the wave would not harm Kryptonians, and I needed someone Supergirl trusted to work with me. Working together, we came up with a couple of ideas to stop the wave and the first of these ideas, that speech of hope, which Cat inspired and Supergirl delivered, did the trick. We all woke up, and my team was able to get control of my satellites again. Unfortunately, our success pissed of the Kryptonians and they went to the second stage of Myriad. And that's where things got really dicey."

"What do you mean?" asked Cat.

"Well, you'll all remember a day or so after we woke up from our sleepwalking, everybody in North America came down with blinding headaches with drugstores selling out of Aspirin and Tylenol and emergency rooms being overwhelmed across the continent?"

Again, the audience nodded.

"The Kryptonians were behind that one, too," Lord continued, "When I took back control of my satellites, they didn't give up. Instead, they sent their wave out from their HQ, a huge spaceship that had landed, fortunately, in a very isolated part of Nevada. And when I say huge, I mean huge: one of the military types said it weighed in at about a million tons. So the Kryptonians powered up their wave using an increasing power curve and set it to a frequency that caused our brain cells to keep on expanding. My calculations showed that they had enough power to fry the craniums of every human being on the planet and from the evidence we had, they came within thirty seconds of giving every one of us killer level strokes. When I reported what they were up to, Supergirl flew to the site, fought and killed their leader, and then she flew the spacecraft up into space and sent it away from earth, all the while believing that she would not return. And if it hadn't been for someone I won't mention, because this gets us into territory that must be classified, Supergirl would not have come back alive."

"You mentioned classification, Mr. Lord. Didn't you just break a national security restriction by telling us what you did?" asked the President.

"No, I didn't," Max replied, "The incident wasn't classified at the time, and it hasn't been classified since. And here's why I know that: nobody has ever presented me with an NDA to sign or told me to keep what I know to myself. Some months back I asked then-President Marsden why the government had never approached me on the subject and she said that she had thought at the time that a major media organization already had the story and would publish it because it would give Supergirl a boost. Why didn't you publish, Cat?"

"Because I didn't have the full story then, and I don't have it now. But I do know that my other guest, Dr. Eliza Danvers, Professor Emerita of Redwood University's Midvale campus was also on the spot that night and she can tell us what she saw. Dr. Danvers, how did you come to be involved in this situation?"

"I was visiting National City, and one of my daughters, a law enforcement professional, experienced deep mental trauma as a result of what she was forced to do during the mind control incident," the motherly blond woman replied, "Since I was in her file as her emergency contact, I was asked to help her get back on balance. I was successful, and as I came in to report to her boss, Mr. Lord announced what the Kryptonians were up to with their increased intensity Myriad wave, which took all eyes off me. So I stayed in the background until the end."

"And was Mr. Lord telling the truth about the danger we faced?"

"Not quite. He understated the danger. If Supergirl had been fifteen seconds slower getting that thing off the earth, we'd all be dead now."

"How do you know that?"

"There was a timer on the wall that monitored the growing intensity of the wave and it ticked down the time to terminal threshold. I couldn't take my eyes off it. And when Supergirl flew that thing away, the timer stopped at thirteen seconds and then it reversed directions and the time to termination increased."

As the audience digested that, Cat turned to Max and asked him, "In the events of that night did anybody mention the name of that spaceship that Supergirl threw into space?"

"General Lane said it was Fort Rozz, whatever that is." Dr. Danvers nodded at Lord's words.

"General Lane?" Cat asked.

"General Samuel Lane," Max said, "He was then the Chief of Military Intelligence and is now the Inspector General of the Army."

"And were any Kryptonians identified?"

"The Kryptonian leader that Supergirl killed with her heat vision was called Non," Max replied, and again Dr. Danvers nodded. "By the way, he was the same guy who led the team that attacked my facility."

"Thank you, Max," said Cat Grant, "It would be nice if we knew more about this Non character."

"I can speak to that point," came a voice from the audience.

"And you are . . ." Cat prompted.

A dark-haired woman in an elegant blue outfit rose gracefully from her seat. "My name is Alura Zor-El, and at the time of Krypton's doom, I was the Chief Judicator of its High Council, a position somewhat analogous to that of the Chief Justice of your country's Supreme Court.

"Then how are you here? Krypton blew up, did it not?" Cat asked.

"It did. But not entirely. And the story of how one city came to be saved from that destruction is directly connected to the arrival of Non and his allies in this world. So, if I may join you. . . "and the woman suddenly flew to the set area, landed, and, at Cat's gesture, sat down in the empty seat across from the President with a poise that any queen would envy.

"My apologies for alarming anyone by flying here," the newcomer said, "but I thought it best to demonstrate that I am not earth-born by using one of the powers we acquire by coming to this planet. But if I may return to Miss Grant's question: my story starts two years before Krypton's destruction when a report was presented to our High Council that claimed that the planet's core was becoming unstable and immediate, drastic action was needed to avert a planetary explosion. The author of that report was not one of our planetologists, but a military general, Astra In-Ze, whose longstanding hobby had been planetology. Unfortunately, the High Council rejected her report when the professionals cast doubt on her conclusions. Under pressure of her fears, she attempted to save the situation by launching a military coup with the help of a strike force that included her husband Non, a fellow military officer. Her group was stopped with some loss of life, and she and her team were tried, convicted and sentenced to Fort Rozz, which was our maximum security prison. I served as the judge at their trials."

"But one member of the High Council believed General Astra's report, and he did something about it. He was one of our greatest physicists, and he devised a force field that had had a radius of about 600 of your miles, and when destruction was imminent he activated it over Argo City, Krypton's capital. He had also worked with the head of the local power utility to initiate an anti-gravity field centered around Argo so when the final explosion happened, Argo became an asteroid and our people survived. So when word reached me about this situation, it was a simple matter for me to access our files and bring a picture which I can show you."

The visitor took something like a small tablet from her jacket pocket, placed it on the desk in front of Cat, tapped it, and a hologram appeared.

"That's Non," said Max, and again Dr. Danvers nodded.

"As it happened," continued the Kryptonian visitor as she again tapped her device and the hologram disappeared, "Supergirl's parents did not know in advance of the physicist's plan, which is why they sent their twelve-year-old daughter and baby nephew away from Krypton moments before the blast. The pod carrying their nephew, the baby you now know as Superman, was launched first and came directly here: the pod that carried the girl who became Supergirl was launched later and was still close enough to the planet to be damaged by the blast wave when Krypton exploded. It was blown off course and into the same region of space as Fort Rozz. And there it sat for some years, with its occupant in suspended animation, until the pod could repair itself and re-commence its flight to earth. Meanwhile, it seems General In-Ze had taken over the prison and somehow activated Fort Rozz's engines to follow Supergirl's pod when it reactivated." "When they got here, General In-Ze and Non saw that in some respects your people had begun on the same path of planetary abuse that ended for us with Krypton's destruction and they sought to avert it. Which is why, Mr. Lord, you met Non and suffered the takeover of your satellites. And while mine is not an official visit, I wish to give you not only my personal apologies for this incident but also those of our High Council. And one more thing needs to be said, General In-Ze had a niece – and that niece is Supergirl."

"Supergirl killed her uncle?" broke in Max, stunned.

"She did. On Krypton family was everything, except when a family member turns criminal. Then it is the duty of the family to see that justice is done. Supergirl fulfilled that duty when she killed her uncle."

"So where is this General Astra In-Ze now?" asked the President. "If she was on Fort Rozz and Fort Rozz came here, are we in for more trouble with criminal Kryptonians?"

"Your second question is one you should ask of your police agencies, but I can tell you that you don't have to worry about General In-Ze. After repeatedly trying to recruit her niece to her cause, General In-Ze was killed in a firefight with some of your people. And she died in the presence of Supergirl, who has remained loyal to your government and continued to work with your police, even though Astra In-Ze was not only her much-beloved aunt but also her mother's identical twin. Since she has remained loyal to her new people for years despite that not inconsiderable provocation to the contrary, may I respectfully suggest that you and your people have no need to distrust or fear Supergirl?"

"How do you know all this? And how did you get here? And why is your English so fluent?" asked the President.

"To answer your first question: six months ago your police encountered the rogue Kryptonian called Reign. To defeat her, it was found necessary to acquire a particular element not found on your planet. Some of Supergirl's friends did a search of nearby space and found a supply of that element on Argo, then over a thousand light years away. Another friend of hers has the capability to travel between worlds and he put it at her disposal. So when she arrived on Argo, we met, and when she told me of her time on earth, her encounters with the Fort Rozz criminals were included in her story.

"Why did she make a point of meeting you?" the President asked again.

"She couldn't help meeting me," the visitor replied, "To obtain the supply of the needed element, she had to make a presentation to Argo's High Council, of which the Chief Judicator is a member. Prior to that presentation, when we were chatting privately, we discussed what had happened to Fort Rozz and the fates of some of its prisoners. Once she obtained the needed supply of the element from the Council, she promised to have a friend of hers attempt to synthesize that element and return with an increased supply, which thanks to a physicist of this city, she was able to do. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Lena Luthor of L Corp, who provided that supply which has made it possible for us to speed our flight through space, arrive at our projected destination somewhat sooner than we had originally projected while remaining healthier while we do so."

"And to answer your second question, Krypton had, and Argo still has, the ability to use a matter transportation system to send people instantly to destinations within a thousand light years and I used that system to come here. And while I do apologize, Mr. President, for this technical violation of your immigration laws, rest assured that I shall very shortly use that system to return home."

"Once I learned of your world, I wanted to learn more about it, so I asked Supergirl to obtain some items for me including an English dictionary and grammar textbook, When she returned to Argo with the supply of the element Dr. Luthor had synthesized, she also brought the items I'd requested. So I had her enter the details into our translating computers, went to bed that night and woke up fluent in English the next morning. Since then, I have been studying your legal system, history, and literature with great interest. Does anyone have any other questions?"

"Yes," President Baker asked, "You mentioned that Argo was over a thousand light-years away when Supergirl first arrived. Now it is clearly closer than that. Are you planning to come here?"

"No, Mr. President, we are not planning to come to Earth. Instead, we are traveling to a planet our astronomers have identified as being more suitable for our needs. While it has a full biosphere under a yellow sun and is thus fully able to support us, it does not have sentient life on it, or anywhere within three hundred light years. So we should be able to settle there peacefully without troubling anyone. Once we are settled, we'll consider the possibility of trade relationships, or if you think it might be useful to you to start trading earlier, we'd be open to a discussion. Are there any more questions?"

"Yes, Chief Judicator," Cat Grant replied, "You mentioned that this was not an official visit. When legal eminences from other countries visit us, their visits are never described as official. Also, your visit must have been organized very quickly, yet you apparently can speak for your High Council. So I'm wondering: do you hold any other position in Argo's government?"

"That's a very astute observation," the Kryptonian replied. "Under Krypton's system of government, the Chief Judicator was the Vice-Chair of the High Council and the Chair's designated successor. After Krypton's destruction, the then-Chair felt so responsible for what had happened that he fell into a deep depression. Ultimately, he could not live with himself and eventually he committed suicide. Normally, the Chair of the High Council does not hold any other position: however, my designated successor as Chief Judicator had been visiting another city on the day of doom, and the man who will now succeed me in the role had just been chosen when the former chair committed suicide. Following those events, the High Council received a petition signed by the great majority of our lawyers and the general population requesting that I remain temporarily in the double role of Chief Judicator and High Council Chair until my successor as Chief Judicator can complete his preparations, which will be sometime next year. And that, of course, is the fundamental reason why I must not remain: the Chair of Argo's High Council has no place in this discussion. It is a matter between Supergirl and her earth government. The saying 'Strangers have no business at a family fight' is as true here as it is on Argo."

And with that, Alura Zor-El gave the audience a gentle smile and left the set.

As she left, Cat Grant asked her next question.

"Mr. President, you said that when you asked Supergirl to reveal her identity, that she replied that her family's identity needed to be kept out of public view. Do you know if her family has been attacked in any way because of who she is in the years since she landed here?"

"I don't know," he replied.

"Did you think of offering her family the same Secret Service protection your family gets?"

"I can't do that. The Secret Service gains its authorization to protect certain individuals by an act of Congress. It would require a change in the law to do have them protect Supergirl's family. And for all we know, they don't need protection."

"You didn't offer to fund the protection they might need? Did you ask her how many times her family had been attacked because they'd taken her in?"

"No, I didn't."

"Also, you mentioned previously that you were being urged to take this stand for transparency and find out Supergirl's identity by some concerned donors. Would you reveal the identity of those donors?

"Of course not," said the President.

"Do you plan to investigate them?" Cat continued. "I mean, we don't know if these donors have been funding Cadmus or the Children of Liberty."

"Of course not," said the President. "They're American citizens and they have the right to privacy, which means they have the right to act anonymously, just as you do. As the Supreme Court has pointed out, in Roe v. Wade and Griswold v. Connecticut the right to privacy is a right to protection from government intrusion. Those rights go all the way back to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, which tells us that governments 'derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.' Unless they consent to give up their privacy, governments have to be careful with the information they reveal about American citizens. And the only way American citzens lose that protection is by due process of law."

"And yet, you would you deny Supergirl that same right to maintain her privacy and act anonymously." pressed Cat.

"Supergirl is not an American citizen," replied the President.

"Are you sure?" asked Cat. "I believe my next guest has some pertinent information on both of these points. To avoid creating security issues, he's joining us via Skype."

A screen off to one side lit up and everyone exclaimed in surprise as they recognized Cat's next guest. Thomas Donaldson was a billionaire real estate developer who'd run a maverick campaign for President over a decade earlier when the previous incumbent had died suddenly of a heart attack. His campaign had been barely successful and his Presidency had been, to put it mildly, not politically correct and highly controversial, marked by high-risk, high reward negotiating tactics that were so nerve-wracking to the public and an overall strategy so unpopular to the chattering classes that he had not been re-elected. Since his departure from office, he'd returned to his business and re-launched his hit TV series Negotiations, which purportedly took his audience inside real business deals as they happened.

"Good evening, Cat," he said.

"Good evening, Mr. President. It's your second toughest bitch kitty negotiator hassling you again."

Donaldson winced, "I still say that mike was supposed to be off."

Despite Cat Grant's political preferences, she knew a good show when she saw one and she'd eagerly signed the former President to reprise his show on CATCO-TV where it quickly became the new network's first big hit. Naturally, the first of the new Negotiators episodes had covered the negotiation that had given the show its' new home. Media Mogul and former President had gone head to head over a number of points and afterward, a mike had picked up the latter's comment to his aide that Cat was "the second toughest bitch kitty negotiator" he'd ever seen. His remark had sent ratings through the roof and caused an immense amount of speculation as to who the toughest negotiator was, speculation to which the former President had never responded.

"Are you ever going to let me forget that?" he now asked.

"Not until you tell me who the toughest bitch kitty negotiator you ever met is. After all the magazine interviews I've done where the writers have given me that title, I find it hard to believe I have competition. I think you were just putting me down," Cat replied, "But that's not why we're here. Do you know if Supergirl is an American citizen in her private life?"

"She is an American citizen of fourteen years standing. I facilitated the process myself. And, right now I wish this question had never been asked."

"Why did you make her a citizen?" asked President Baker. "Supergirl is an alien."

"Because Supergirl was represented by a negotiator who held all the high cards and I had zip."

"What happened?" asked President Baker.

"It started when the White House Signals Office got a phone call–from an American calling from a location in Russia. The caller left a very disturbing message. After identifying herself, she said three things: that earth had a second Kryptonian visitor, that if I wanted that visitor to grow up as an American, I would need to personally take her next incoming call in three hours, and that if I needed proof of her claims, I should: a) consult her entry in Who's Who to determine whether she might be likely to be offered employment in other countries and b) consult a particular man who would be able to confirm her custody of the Kryptonian, and c) she gave me a detail that would enable me to find him. That detail was something less than one hundred very highly cleared people in the US government should have known and the fact that someone not authorized to know that detail knew it set off a lot of alarm bells. So I was briefed, asked for a check on the Who's Who entry which showed that my caller was indeed in demand all over the world, asked if we knew anything about a second Kryptonian on earth, and started a rush check on the confidential detail my caller had supplied. And when I got those answers, I realized that we had a major problem, and so I was waiting for her call. And when she called back, still from within Russia but from another city, she told me an even more disturbing story."

"And that was?" Cat asked.

"According to my caller, some two years previously, she and her husband had been entrusted, (she didn't say by whom, but I could guess) with raising our latest Kryptonian visitor. Less than a year after that, their home was invaded one night by a large number of armed men proclaiming themselves agents of the US government and they would take the Kryptonian girl by force with them for study - an action only averted when the husband, who had a deep knowledge of Superman – for reasons I won't mention here – offered to put that knowledge, and himself, at the government's disposal instead. The name that my caller had originally supplied turned out to have been the name of the agent in charge that night. Since that night, her husband had worked for the US government and my caller had bank records to prove it. Some months later, she said, (which was six months before my election) her husband was reported dead in a plane crash, but given how he had been recruited, she doubted that the report was accurate. So she had waited until her work took her abroad, which it frequently did, and arranged for her daughters to leave the country with her. So since all of them were now abroad, she asked, did I want a second American Kryptonian or did I want another country to have her, because she had a job offer from that country?"

"I asked her if I could have a couple of hours to check on this part of her story, and my caller agreed to call me back. By the time she did, I had checked out her story as best I could.

"When she called again, I began by telling her that while the man whose name she had given me was missing and believed dead, my staff had found other people who could confirm her story of the house raid and what had been said that night. I then turned to the big question. Now remember: by that date, we all knew that Superman was a valuable national asset, so of course I said I wanted the girl to grow up American.  
"To which my caller replied: 'That's good because I want her to grow up American, too. But here are my terms.'  
• 'I will commit to raising my Kryptonian daughter in the tradition of the finest American ideals,  
(I agreed to that.)  
'And you Mr. President,' she said, 'will ensure that the following is done as soon as possible:  
• 'There will be no government interference with my daughter's life for as long as she remains hidden and does not use her powers publically.  
(We had a long discussion on this. My caller pointed out that if the young girl grew up and volunteered to use her powers she would be more valuable to us as a volunteer rather than as someone forced into doing something she didn't want to do. I agreed. But while she was growing up, and for as long as she didn't come out publically, I wanted her monitored to make sure she was living below the radar and not using her powers, and, after some back and forth, my caller eventually agreed.) Then my caller continued:  
• 'That I would facilitate her daughter's formal legal adoption into that family and see her granted legal American citizenship in a way that protected her identity as much as possible,  
(I could do that easily, and I did.)  
• And finally, with one exception, we agreed that we would both commit to keeping this agreement totally between ourselves,' the former President finished

"And what was that exception?" asked Cat.

"It was this," replied his predecessor, "If the government ever made the young girl's earth identity public, or even threatened to do so, my caller would have the right to not only make our agreement public without being prosecuted for violating national security, but she would have the additional right to make public any incident involving her daughter which the government had classified. And this term of the agreement would be in writing. (I said I could grant that during my term, but I couldn't speak for my successor, but my caller had thought of that. She said 'Then give me an undated Presidential pardon, that specifically allows my daughter to speak to me of any incident in which she is involved, and me to speak publicly of any incident involving my daughter, without regard to classification. I could make public what I want and date the pardon for the next day. No subsequent President would want to take the risk of testing that pardon in the courts or in Congress.' (And she was right. Once she had that pardon, trying her after she made something public would open a hellacious can of worms. I didn't want to do that, but the situation forced my hand and my caller knew I'd have to give in. So she held out until I did. I tried everything I could think of, but I couldn't change her mind.)

"How could you do that?" sputtered an appalled President Baker.

"Easily. The bottom line was and is national security. Two well-meaning Kryptonians are better than one, especially if the other one were to serve a country not fully aligned to our interests." Everybody in the room understood what the former President did not say. "And from the way she handled her initial phone calls, I had some reason to trust that my caller would keep her end of the deal, which is something that she has done to this very moment. And it's a damn good thing I make that deal. If I hadn't made it, we'd all be dead now–as Mr. Lord and Dr. Danvers have told us. As far as I know, Supergirl's never asked anyone for any favor whatsoever: the least we can do is give her some private life, as Max Lord has pointed out. And Max, I think this is the first time you've ever agreed with me on anything."

Max Lord looked as if he had bit into a lemon as President Baker shook his head, unmoved. "Then why are you telling us all this?"

"Because Supergirl's mother knew in advance about your attempt to forcibly expose Supergirl's identity. She asked me to stand by for a Skype call from Cat tonight."

Cat rejoined the conversation, "Do you know, Mr. President, if Supergirl's earth family have suffered any more attacks because she is Supergirl other than this illegal home invasion and the loss of their husband and father to the coercion that you have described?"

"Not to my knowledge," the former President replied.

Another voice from the crowd spoke up. "That's a question I can answer."

"And who are you?" Cat asked.

"I'm Detective Sergeant Margaret Sawyer of the NCPD's Science division. A year or so back, Supergirl reported receiving a phone call from someone who had kidnapped her sister and placed her in a time-limited death trap entailing death by drowning. The kidnapper knew Supergirl's civilian identity and wanted her to engage in an illegal activity as the ransom for saving her sister's life. To solve the case, Supergirl realized that it was necessary for her to tell us of the kidnapper's motive. Thankfully, working together the NCPD and Supergirl managed to free her sister in time. If we'd got there even a minute later, she would have drowned."

"And the kidnapper?" Cat asked

Maggie half-lied with a good conscience since J'onn had wiped the man's memory, "In the wind."

"So you know Supergirl's identity?" President Baker asked.

"Certain members of the NCPD know it, but it's a law enforcement confidence. I've also been authorized to speak officially by both Chief Lowell and Mayor Truxton to tell the world that so long as Supergirl acts within the confines of the Good Samaritan laws, it's fine with National City and the NCPD if she does so anonymously. City Council will be passing a resolution tomorrow to put that in writing."

The audience applauded, but the petite Latina hadn't finished. She raised her hand, and when the audience quietened, she spoke again:

"We've known for some time that certain people in the Federal Government know who Supergirl is and until now they have been happy to work with her. We also know from the news clips of that night she went out of control that the Feds can take her out any time they want to, whether or not she goes off the rails. So even if Supergirl wants to keep her private life to herself, that anonymity is no threat whatsoever to the safety of the people of National City. And the NCPD utterly rejects any notion that would posit a false moral equivalence between the criminal reasons Ben Lockwood hid his identity and the valid reasons why Supergirl reserves hers." With that, Maggie sat down.

In the silence that followed, Cat spoke up: "So everybody on this planet owes Supergirl their lives. Ben Lockwood hates her, yet he owes Supergirl his life, and the lives of his wife and kids. Your donors owe her their lives and the lives of their spouses and their kids. Even you, Mr. President, owe Supergirl your life and the lives of your wife and children. It doesn't bother you that you are welshing on your debt?"

"No," said President Baker, "My constitutional responsibility is to protect the country. As a very wise politician said, many years ago, 'My first qualification for this office is my monumental personal ingratitude.'"

"Your 'constitutional responsibility?'" The incredulous note in the calm voice turned all eyes to the Professor as she rejoined the conversation, "Your constitutional responsibility does not allow you to reject the America of the Declaration of Independence in which 'all men are created equal' and 'endowed with unalienable rights' in favor of an America founded on George Orwell's Animal Farm in which 'all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others,' which is what you are doing. I think it's hypocritical for someone whose family has never been attacked because they are protected by the Secret Service to push for an action that would put an unprotected family, which has already been attacked twice, squarely into the sights of any of the crazies that Lockwood's fanaticism has whipped up. And it's equally hypocritical to deny Supergirl and her family the rights of American citizens to which they are all legally entitled, while you correctly and eloquently affirm those rights in the case of your donors. The only reason for denying an American citizen his or her rights is due process of law, and what you are doing here is anything but. You are trying to put Supergirl into a box. Either she does violence to her sense of public duty and puts the security of the country at measurably increased risk by not volunteering for whatever federal agencies she's been helping out, or you force her to sacrifice not only her own constitutional right to privacy but also the constitutional rights to privacy of her family as well." Dr. Danvers turned and looked at the audience. "And every one of you should ask yourself this: if he gets away with doing this to Supergirl and her family, what's he going to do to any of us if we get in his way?"

"You seem to be taking this personally Dr. Danvers," the President commented. "This has nothing to do with you."

"Well, in the sense that I'm not an alien or an immigrant you're right," Dr. Danvers replied. "I'm a fifth-generation American on both sides of my family, so you might think I shouldn't be affected by any of this." The voice of the motherly blond biochemist had never varied from its quiet tones and it did not vary now. "But if Supergirl was to give way to your pressure and stand here and reveal the name under which she lives her private life, that action would make you an accessory before the fact to violating three people's constitutional rights to privacy without due process of law: those people are Supergirl herself; my eldest daughter, her sister; and me, her adoptive mother."

The audience gasped, but Eliza Danvers continued, as calmly as if she was discussing a shopping list, "And I'm taking this opportunity to look you in the eye and exercise my constitutional right to protest your action. By doing what you did, apparently for no better reason than to curry favor with some of Lockwood's supporters, you have not only threatened to force my daughter to paint a target on my back and her sister's back, but by your attempt to deprive us of our Constitutional rights, you have broken your Presidential oath to 'preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States' and you have proved yourself to be a coward, a hypocrite, and precisely the kind of tyrant our ancestors fought the American Revolution to free ourselves from."

A dead silence fell over the room, unbroken and ominous. Nobody moved, nobody breathed.

Nobody dared breathe.

"I told Supergirl that the United States does not want a war with her," a stunned President Baker finally replied.

"You aren't getting a war with Supergirl and the United States isn't getting one with her either" that quiet, implacable voice continued, "But you started a war with me. And I'll finish it."

"But there's no need for a war," the President said. "Now that the public knows who Supergirl is, she can work for the government without restriction. And you're a law-abiding citizen so you won't take it further."

"No, neither of those things is going to happen," replied Eliza Danvers, "Supergirl has never "worked" for the government, and she's not starting now. In addition, I am indeed taking the matter further. We're going on a family vacation."

"A vacation. So you're not really concerned about the targets you painted on your backs?" asked the President, in a nasty tone.

"I am gravely concerned," the biochemist replied, "But the destination we are going to is the ideal destination for us because it's a place where nobody on earth will be able to take advantage of the information you tried to force Supergirl to reveal. But it's no surprise that you don't see it. One key detail hasn't been mentioned yet. You remember that General Astra In-Ze had a twin sister?"

"Yes." President Baker replied.

"That twin sister is Chief Judicator Zor-El." The audience gasped as the penny dropped. "Which makes her Supergirl's mother," Eliza Danvers continued. "Don't you think my daughter would love to introduce her earth family and her cousin to her mother and show them around her old home town? In fact, she's so eager to do so that she's already left earth. And, by the way, she's traveling to Argo in the same ship she arrived in which was her mother's personal property."

"That's impossible. That ship is in government storage," President Baker exclaimed.

"Not anymore," was the calm reply,

"Taking that ship is theft. The US Government has salvage rights to it."

"Actually the government removed the ship prematurely from where it had been temporarily parked so Superman could take his cousin to a safe place. He had planned to take it elsewhere after ensuring his cousin's safety. In fact, it was less than an hour from the time Superman left to the time he returned and found it gone. Granted, her procedure is a little irregular, and if you really want to be petty about it, you can initiate a claim for the salvage and storage costs with the US Federal District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, which, as the US Admiralty court, is the proper venue for this situation. Before you do that, however, you might want to consider how the court's judges might respond to government requests to keep certain relevant information under wraps, like who removed the ship, and where was it stored for the last couple of decades? And if you do launch a suit, once the court renders its judgment, which will be in about eighteen months or so, just email a copy of the decision to the email address inside the envelope that Miss Grant has for you. If you do that, the Chief Judicator tells me that the bill will be paid. Also inside that envelope is the name of a military officer who is known to you, and a note explaining why that name is relevant."

"How do you know whether I know a particular officer's name?"

"That will be explained in the note."

"How long will your family stay on Argo?" Cat asked.

"That's a good question," Eliza Danvers replied. "Some months certainly, possibly longer. Who knows? It'll take a while to show us all around. Also, her mother wants to have some long talks with us, and I want to have some long talks with her. And Superman does too, and he's already there. I wonder what he'll think when he hears about all this: even before this, he's had good reasons to keep the federal government at arm's length. And this will give my daughter time to decide what she wants to do. She's always wanted to live a normal Kryptonian life with her friends and family and pursue her ambition to join the military guild. Now she has the chance to take up the life she'd dreamed of and thought lost forever, not to mention the ability to re-connect with her childhood friends. She might even take up another useful job that will be waiting for her."

"What's that?" asked Cat.

"It's only two or three years until Argo arrives at the new planet they've chosen. And since it has a yellow sun, my daughter – not to mention myself and her sister – will be needed to help them adapt more easily to the new powers they'll receive. So for the first time in over a decade, my daughter has a real choice about her future and the kind of life she wants to live. She can stay there if she wants, or she can come back here if she wants to live without the private life she loved. And she'll make that choice without any pressure whatsoever."

"But we need Supergirl here," President Baker said as he realized, too late, where this was going.

"Really? You dismissed her from government service yourself. You just want a Kryptonian or two to help the police. And now that Argo is in our sky, you can't play on my daughter's sense of public duty to force her into doing what you want, because she knows that you'll find it easy to arrange suitable replacements just by talking to the Argo High Council via that email address in the envelope."

The President blanched as he realized the full depth of the hole Eliza Danvers had dug for him. If he negotiated for Kryptonian police, he would lose any support from Lockwood's sympathizers who'd see them as the "foreign mercenaries" decried by the Declaration of Independence: if he lost Supergirl, and possibly Superman, without replacing them, he would be publicly putting national security at risk. Combine that with the way the quiet, all-American mother had shaped her charge about how his attempt to force Supergirl to reveal her identity violated her family's constitutional rights, and he might even be facing an impeachment fight.

"I think I need to consult some files," said President Baker, "so if you will excuse me. . ." and he rose and left the set, barely remembering to receive the envelope Cat Grant handed to him.

Dr. Danvers began to rise a few seconds later, "I'm afraid I must ask you to excuse me too: my ride to Argo is waiting."

The former President was still watching from the monitor, "Before you go, Dr. Danvers, I'd like a word." As Eliza sat back in her chair, Donaldson continued, "There are two things that must be said. I don't speak for America anymore, but I think I speak for many of us when I thank you for raising your daughter in the way that you have. You have more than fulfilled the deal we made that night." A loud roar from the audience heralded a standing ovation. As it died, the former President continued, "Second, now that the agreement we made has been broken by Henry's stupidity, I'd like to reiterate the job offer I made you after I left the White House. And I'll sweeten the deal. If you come to work for me, I'll commit to permanently supplying the bodyguards that you and your eldest daughter will need. And they are trained to Secret Service levels."

"Thank you, Mr. President, but as I said before, I can take a stand on what's right when I have to, but practical negotiations of the kind you want me for are not really my thing. But I appreciate the thought. And I'll take my share of your thanks for raising Supergirl, but any credit for the way she turned out needs to be shared with Chair Zor-El who did a marvelous job starting her off, and my eldest daughter who stepped up over and over again for her sister, to the point of putting her own life at risk in the incident Mr. Lord didn't mention. "

Another roar of applause filled the room as Max nodded his agreement, and then he spoke: "Negotiations may not be your thing, Dr. Danvers, but biotechnology most definitely is. And my offer to head up Lord Industries new biotech division is still open. And I'd be happy to provide the necessary bodyguards, both for you and your eldest, whose courage and integrity fully match those of her sister.

Eliza Danvers ignored the new round of applause, "Thank you, Mr. Lord, but no. The reasons I gave you the last time we talked still hold. Good night," she nodded to Lord, "good night Mr. President, good night Cat, and thank you for setting this up. And I'd also like to thank you for being my daughter's mentor for her first three years at CatCo. I owe you two favors and I won't forget that."

"Well, in that case, Dr. Danvers," Cat Grant replied, "you can pay me back right now."

"What can I do for you? And it's Eliza."

"First, I want to know how your bulletproof daughter, who was easily the best assistant I've ever had, managed to cut herself on some broken glass right in front of me. I was beginning to suspect that she might be Supergirl until she did that. And second, I want an interview with your daughter, a tour of Argo City, and an interview with her mother if it can be arranged."

Eliza grinned, "She hasn't told me about the glass incident, so I can't help you there, but we both thought you might like a trip to Argo. How long will it take you to pack?" She stood to leave.

"Two hours," Cat replied, as she rose with her audience.

"Then follow the instructions in this note," and she handed Cat an envelope from her purse, turned, touched the new Cisco Ramon broach she was wearing, walked into an eye-searing, blue-white circle, and vanished.

The standing ovation that had started with her turn to go became a stunned silence as she disappeared.

As Cat sat down, she caught the questioning look and raised eyebrow of the former President.

"All right, Mr. President, you win. Dr. Danvers takes the prize."

"Cat, when you talk to her, please tell Chair Zor-El that I want to pay that salvage bill, if and when," the former President said. "We can't have the Argo High Council thinking that all our Presidents lack any sense of honor."

"Make that half, Mr. President. Chair Zor-El also needs to know that some Americans appreciate her daughter," Max Lord piped up.

"It'll be twenty-five percent from each of you. I'll put in twenty-five myself and I'll open a public subscription for the rest." Cat said.

"That's fine with me, "Max replied as the former President nodded, "But, you know, Mr. President, there's another thing we agree on."

"What's that, Max?"

"That's one very tough lady, and I'm glad I've never faced her over a negotiating table."

"And if you're lucky, you never will," the former President observed, "But if you do, remember this: it's not a good idea to make her mad at you."


	2. She Doesn't Waste Time

__The day before . . .__

When the President traveled, White House Press Secretary Cat Grant normally stayed in the same hotels as the rest of the presidential party. But when the President visited National City, Cat made an exception to the rule and stayed in her penthouse condo. She had just e-mailed her response to a recent Presidential decision from her favorite study chair when the phone rang. Preoccupied, she picked it up without looking at it.

"Cat Grant," she said. She nearly dropped the phone when a voice she'd never expected to hear again sounded in her ear.

"Hello Miss Grant, it's Eliza Danvers, Kara's mother, and I'm calling because she needs your help–urgently."

"I'm a little busy right now, what with resigning from the White House, "Cat began, but the other woman overrode her.

"Yes, and that's partly why I'm calling. I'll give you two hundred-to-one-odds that I know why you're resigning, and if I'm wrong, you need to be tipped off on a story that's about to break. How soon can I see you?"

"I need a little bit more than that, Dr. Danvers." Cat replied.

"Of course, but the story is best discussed in person. So how about this? I have my daughter's permission to call in some debts you owe her. And it's Eliza."

"What debts are we talking about?" Cat asked.

"First, your job at CatCo. Second, your life, which she has saved more than once. And third and most important your son's life, which she saved the night he slipped away from his minder."

Cat stared, stunned.

"Miss Grant?" the voice prompted.

"It's Cat. Are you in National City, Eliza?" Cat asked.

"Yes, if you're at your penthouse, I can be there in ten minutes."

"I am at my penthouse. I'll alert the doorman to send you straight up. And Eliza?"

"Yes?"

"You'd better not be joking."

"I'm not. See you in ten."

0000000000

Her hostess was waiting in her living room as the elevator door opened and Eliza Danvers stepped out.

"Hello, Eliza, it's been a long time."

"It has," the taller of the two women replied. "Since the night we helped take down Myriad. Should I tell you why I think you are resigning? And is this room secure?"

"Yes, and yes, the room is secure. You don't waste time, do you?"

"I don't have any to waste. And we'd better establish a ground-rule: our discussion needs to be a deep background conversation. Are you OK with that?"

Cat nodded.

"I think you're quitting because you found out that President Baker has forbidden Supergirl from volunteering with any federal agency unless she makes her earth identity public. Am I right?"

Cat nodded again. "Please sit down. Can I offer you coffee or tea?"

"No thanks," Eliza replied as she sat on the couch, "But you can tell me what you are going to do now."

"I'm going back to running CatCo."

"How can you do that? Didn't you sell your stock?"

"No," Cat replied, "I only sold the voting rights to my shares for the duration of my time as Press Secretary. I've just called Lena Luthor to tell her what I've done and what I'm going to do, and she's accepted my offer to stay on CatCo's board. But before you go any further, I'd better put on some music. I hope you don't mind murmuring in my ear to the accompaniment of Mussorgsky," Cat said, as she flicked a switch and an amazing recording of __The Great Gate of Kiev__ began at full volume. She sat next to Eliza on the couch and murmured into her ear. "The night Carter slipped away from his minder, that minder was Kara and the only one I know who was involved in saving his life was Supergirl. Now when you say I owe Carter's life to Kara that night, I have a problem because I've seen Kara and Supergirl in the same room together. Can you explain that?"

"Why did President Marsden leave office?" Eliza replied quietly.

Cat had guessed this, but she only raised an eyebrow. Eliza saw it, and continued, "And no, she wasn't involved in deceiving you. But before I give you some other evidence for my claim, the fact that you are going back to CatCo may change what I want to do. When will your reinstatement take effect?"

"The board meeting is set for 9:30 am tomorrow. Is that soon enough?"

"Yes, thank you."

"Now, you said you had some additional evidence."

"Yes," Eliza said as she removed her cell phone from her purse, "But first, speaking for Kara, I'd like to apologize to you for deceiving you, and second, I'd like to have a less biased source provide you with the reasons why she felt it was necessary to do that."

Cat nodded a third time.

"I assume you have former President Donaldson's number in your contact list since you broadcast his show?"

"Yes," Cat replied.

"Please call him on my phone using your number."

"Why not use my phone?" Cat asked

"You'll hear, and you'll get through faster," Eliza replied.

Cat punched the number and didn't hear a ring when it connected. Instead, she was surprised to hear the high-pitched whistle and the recorded "Secure the line, secure the line," that she knew marked the US government's most secure communications equipment. As the message changed to "The line is secure," Cat took a deep breath.

"Hello Dr. Danvers," came the familiar voice of the former President, "What can I do for you? Have you decided to take up my offer and join the Donaldson company, or has something gone wrong?"

"Hello Mr. President," Cat replied.

"Cat Grant, what are you doing on this line?"

"Dr. Eliza Danvers handed me her phone and told me to call you. How come a university biochemist has a US government secure phone?"

"Are you two alone? And has that room been swept for bugs recently?"

"Yes, and yes," Cat replied.

"Then you'd better put me on speaker."

"Done," said Cat as she turned down the recording's volume.

"Hello Dr. Danvers. Why is Cat Grant calling me on your phone?"

"Because my youngest daughter trusts her. And she also tells me that President Baker has just broken what you were pleased to call the Danvers-Donaldson treaty." Eliza replied.

For a second there was only the hum of the phone line and then the two women heard a heartfelt "Oh, shit." Then the former President continued, "Exactly what did he do?"

"I suspect the issue is that he forbade Supergirl from volunteering with any federal agency until and unless she revealed the name under which she is living on earth," Cat said

"Cat's correct," echoed Eliza, "Mr. President, please tell Cat how you and I became acquainted and the details of our agreement. And you should know that Cat has given me her word that this is a deep background conversation." Eliza replied.

"Before I do that, Dr. Danvers, I must know exactly what you are planning to do."

"That's no part of our agreement, Mr. President."

"No, it isn't. But I care enough for this country that I won't willingly see it hurt. If you want my cooperation, you have to tell me what you're up to."

"Fair enough." Eliza replied, then she paused before continuing, "The country's national security has already been weakened if not endangered by President Baker's decision, am I right?"

"You are," the former President replied.

"If you work with Cat and me, any additional damage to national security will cut to the absolute minimum. I admit that this option admits of a variety of potential outcomes: in the best case, there will be no additional long-term damage whatsoever and possibly only a little more short-term danger. And in any less-than-best-case outcomes, whatever national security damage does take place will arise not from what I am going to do, but from whatever President Baker does in reply. On the other hand, if you don't work with me, your decision will leave me with only one option. While I don't want to threaten either you or the country, I must tell you that my last resort is a full unveiling of everything I know to Cat who has just resigned and will be returning to CatCo immediately. And you know that if I do that, the damage to national security will be massive and the fallout will not only land on President Baker but on the whole Gang of Eight and the Intelligence and Justice committees of the House and the Senate. And that could paralyze the Congress until the next election. I think I've earned your trust in my goodwill and judgment over these last fifteen years, Mr. President. Will you trust me on this?"

"When you put it that way, I guess I have to," the former President replied.

"Then after you tell Cat how we became acquainted I'll tell you both what I want to do and where I'll need your help."

OK then, Cat," President Donaldson began, "It started with a phone call to the White House Signals Office, six months after I was elected. And the call came from Russia . . . "

0000000000

". . . So that's what happened, Cat. But the big question is this; what are you going to do now, Dr. Danvers?" the former President finished.

After a glance at her hostess who was looking as if she'd seen a ghost, Eliza replied, "As I mentioned, Cat has resigned over the President's actions, and I know that she will be back running CatCo as of about 10 am tomorrow. President Baker is scheduled to appear on CatCo's _"___This Evening"__ tomorrow night. If the host should come down with laryngitis, I suggest that Cat take the interview and introduce America to the second part of the Myriad incident which is when we all came down with those blinding headaches that came very close to killing every human on earth, courtesy of some Kryptonian terrorists. But very few people know that Supergirl is the reason those headaches went away. Even fewer know how she did it, and that her saving the world involved detailed cooperation with more than one arm of the federal government. Would you like to break that story, Cat?"

Cat nodded.

"I thought you might. And since you've agreed, I should also tell you that I've called former President Marsden to confirm that she's never classified this incident. I also know that Max Lord, who is one of the very few people who can tell your viewers exactly what went down, is also aware of the situation's non-classified status. I can reach Max and I have reason to think I can get him to accept your invitation to come on the show. And since I was also on the spot, I can be present to back him up when you interview him. This way, we can show America the value of having the government working with Supergirl."

"So far so good, but why are you calling me?" President Donaldson asked.

"Because I'd like you to be ready to call in on Skype and tell the audience exactly what you told Cat just now, without, of course, mentioning my name, or my daughter's name. But there will be someone else who will follow Max and then we'll put you on."

"Who's that?" Cat asked.

"As you likely know from Lois Lane's recent article, one Kryptonian city, Argo, their capital, survived the explosion and became an asteroid. Argo is now in this galaxy. Using the contacts Supergirl made during a visit there last year I have reached out to the former Chief Judicator of Krypton who will be arriving from Argo tomorrow morning. She can testify that two of the key Kryptonian terrorists were Supergirl's deeply loved aunt, and her husband: the former was also her mother's identical twin. While Max will tell us about the terrorist Supergirl had to kill in the key battle, our visitor can identify that terrorist as Supergirl's uncle, and she can also tell the story of how Supergirl was present at her aunt's death when the latter was killed in an earlier firefight with US special agents. Despite these facts, Supergirl remained loyal to her new government and people both at that moment and throughout the following years. Giving the audience those additional reasons to trust the Girl of Steel shows up the folly of President Baker's action in stark terms."

"I like it, Cat, how about you?" the former President commented.

"I'm in," Cat said, "But first we have to get Max Lord lined up."

"I don't think that will be a problem. He knows what he owes Supergirl," Eliza Danvers remarked, "But we don't need to take up any more of your time, Mr. President."

"Thank you, Dr. Danvers. Cat, what number should I call and when?"

"I'll call you back with those details once Max agrees. Goodbye, Mr. President."

"Goodbye, ladies," the former President said, and then he was gone.

Eliza punched a new number into her phone and put it on speaker.

"Well, hello Dr. Danvers, it's been a long time. My offer is still open and the deputy head of my biotech division will be ecstatic if you've reconsidered my offer."

"I'm afraid not Mr. Lord. I'm calling because I need your help. Or rather my youngest daughter needs your help."

"Help with what?" Max asked, "And why isn't she asking me herself?"

"I assume you have state of the art security and sweep your office for bugs regularly."

"Yes."

"Then Cat Grant and I will be over to see you in twenty minutes to explain matters. And the answer to the question I'm sure you want to ask is: "Yes, she does."

0000000000

As the two women drove to the Lord technologies building, Eliza Danvers answered her phone. This wasn't on speaker, so Cat heard only one side of the conversation.

"Hello Maggie."

"I'm fine, how are you. Thanks for calling back."

"That's great. Look, I need your help, or rather Kara does."

"I can be at Noonan's in about ninety minutes."

"Bye, Maggie, see you soon."

"What was that all about?" Cat asked as Eliza put her phone away.

"Just setting up a meeting with someone I hope will be your final guest tomorrow, a police detective sergeant who can speak to an additional attack our family endured because of Kara's special abilities." She looked her question at Cat who nodded:

"Yes. After hearing Tom Donaldson's story, I can understand why Kara lied to me. I don't see how anyone could have done anything else under the circumstances. And for what it's worth, you have my sympathy and my respect. Raising even one child singlehanded is no joke. I don't like to think about raising two. Not to mention dealing with Kara's unique challenges."

0000000000

When the women arrived at Lord Technologies, they were ushered straight to Max's office.

"Hello ladies, can I get you some refreshments?"

"Not now, Mr. Lord," Eliza replied, "but thank you for the offer. We have just learned that President Baker has forbidden Supergirl to volunteer with any federal agency unless she divulges the name under which she has been living here."

"You don't waste time do you, Dr. Danvers? He really did that?"

The women nodded.

"Then he's a monumentally stupid man, and he's putting national security at risk. How can I help?"

"By letting me interview you on __This Evening__ tomorrow night about the second part of the Myriad incident and Supergirl's role in stopping those Kryptonian terrorists. I know that the incident has never been classified," Cat said. "And Dr. Danvers here will be on the show to back you up. Apparently, she was on the spot too."

"Yes, she was. You know, Dr. Danvers, doing this could present a significant risk to your family."

"I know, Mr. Lord. Thank you for your concern, but I've given some thought to minimizing the risk. But, in any case, it's worth it."

"I guess that means you want me to tell Cat what happened?"

"Yes."

"Then it started like this, Cat, . . . "

Cat Grant not was a woman who was easily surprised or awed, but by the time Max was a third of the way through his story, she was both.

00000000000

As Cat Grant enjoyed a late drink on her penthouse balcony, she reflected on what happened a few minutes earlier. Eliza had called and confirmed Maggie's participation and also told her that Maggie had not only agreed to help but that she had also taken the news of the President's action to her boss, National City's police chief who in turn had informed the Mayor. And both men had given statements for Maggie to read on air in praise of Supergirl. As she appreciated how Eliza's plan seemed to be coming together, her phone rang. It was Eve Tessmacher.

"Oh, Miss Grant, I'm sorry to call so late, but Mr. Olsen has told me that you are coming back to CatCo."

"Yes, Eve, I am. Is that a problem?"

"No, and yes, I'm afraid. No, because it will be great for CatCo, and yes, because I'm resigning. I've been working part-time with Dr. Luther on one of her L-Corp projects on my own time, and now she needs me in a full-time support role."

"I'm sorry to see you go. You're a good assistant."

"Maybe, but I'm a better biochemist, and that's what Dr. Luthor needs."

"When will you leave?" Cat asked.

"Immediately, I'm afraid. I gave formal notice to CatCo though Dr. Luthor two weeks ago."

"Then, best wishes for your time at L-Corp."

"Thank you, Miss Grant," and Eve was gone.

Cat frowned as she hung up the phone: finding a new assistant was never fun, but then she grinned as she dialed another number. At least she could make it easy for herself on her first day back.

"Hello, Miss Grant," said the surprised voice in her ear, "I heard you resigned from the White House today."

"Yes, Keira, I did, and I'm coming back to CatCo," she replied, "but Eve Tessmacher has resigned, effective immediately, so I'm afraid I'll need to take you off reporting duties tomorrow to help me get back up to speed. I'll come in as a visitor at 9 am and meet you at your office. The board meeting that will make it official will start at 9:30."

"That's fine, Miss Grant. I'll clear you with the security desk and get you your latte from Noonan's on the way in. And it will be good to have you back. Lena Luthor's done a great job improving the administrative side, but with Snapper having that heart attack just before he was due to return, we need you in editorial."

With that, Cat Grant's world returned to normal. Except that it hadn't, and she knew it.

__The next day__

At 8:45, Kara Danvers arrived in her office, put the piping hot Noonan's latte on her desk, sat down in her chair and fidgeted. She knew what her foster mother had told Cat the day before, and Eliza had told her what Cat had said in reply. But that was not the same thing as Cat talking to Kara directly. Kara knew that her mentor could use her tongue like a buzz saw. And Kara had lied to her. That, she knew, was unforgivable.

Fifteen minutes later, Kara froze as she heard a familiar heartbeat come towards her door. As she opened it, with the latte in her other hand, she found Cat Grant standing with arm upraised ready to knock.

"Good morning Miss Grant, here's your latte, come in." she said.

"Thank you, Keira," her mentor said. She took the latte, walked into the office, and shut the door. "We have to talk."

"Miss Grant, I'm so sorry . . ." Kara began.

Cat put up her hand. "Or rather, I have to talk, so stop talking right now, Kara Danvers. Don't say a word until I finish this."

Kara stopped mid-word..

"Thank you. I owe you my job, I owe you my life twice over, and most important, Kara, I also owe you Carter's life. So, we forget that you lied to me to keep your family out of the spotlight since, as I told Eliza, I don't see how anyone in your position could have possibly done anything else. And I have also learned that, aside from losing your home, you have also your earth father because you made a perfectly understandable and innocent mistake when you were a young girl and were unfamiliar with your new surroundings. Not to mention the fact that you had to kill your uncle, and you had to endure your aunt dying in your presence. I don't know anyone to whom life has been crueler than it has been to you. What amazes me is that despite all these disasters, none of which were your fault, you have remained kind, loyal and the unstinting help of earth's people. Someday, my dear, you'll have to tell me how you do it. And Kara," she smiled as she saw the girl give an ineffective swipe at her eyes, "since I'm not officially back yet, this may be the one time you'll ever be allowed to cry at CatCo during working hours. Feel free to make the most of it."

Kara managed a goofy half-grin before turning away, grabbing a Kleenex, and wiping her eyes. The two women sat in silence for a few moments until another knock sounded at the door.

"I'd better get that Miss Grant," Kara said. When she opened the door, a dark-haired woman in an elegant blue outfit stood in the doorway.

"__Ieiu__, I'm so glad you're here. Thank you for coming. Come in." As the woman entered the room, Kara hugged her. The way she folded into the visitor's body and the look of deep peace that flowed over her face, told Cat everything she needed to know before Kara could utter a word.

"Miss Grant," Kara said as she broke from the hug, "may I introduce Alura Zor-El, formerly the Chief Judicator of Krypton and now Chief Judicator of Argo?" Cat nodded, and Kara continued, "She is also my mother. __Ieiu__ this is Cat Grant, my employer, a most valued mentor, and my friend."

Cat had never felt so humble in her life. She had to swallow twice before she could find her voice. "I'm pleased to meet you, Chief Judicator, but I'm afraid I must ask you to wait here for a few minutes since Kara and I have a meeting we mustn't be late for. We'll talk when we get back. But I must say this right now: your daughter is a great credit to Krypton and Argo, and she has been a tremendous beacon of hope for a great many people all around the world, not to mention the person who singlehandedly saved the lives of everyone on this planet. Thank you for raising her as you did."

"Thank you, Miss Grant. My husband and I may have given her a good start, but it was Dr. Eliza Danvers, who did the hardest part of the job. And I don't mind waiting alone for a few of your minutes. I'm still adjusting to being back on this planet."

As she filed the Kryptonian's remark for later reference, Cat gestured to Kara to lead the way out of the room.

0000000000

With the board meeting successfully adjourned, Cat motioned to Kara, and they left the boardroom and returned to Kara's office where her mother was waiting. Then the three women moved to the executive floor and walked toward the CEO's office.

As they arrived, Cat stopped by Kara's old desk.

"Kara, please call the White House Press Office and tell them that Walt Robertson is down with laryngitis, that I'm hosting __This Evening__ tonight, and that I'm changing the guest list. I'll be substituting Maxwell Lord and Dr. Elizabeth Danvers for Senator Feinberg and Congressman Shifton. Then call the Senator and the Congressman and let them know they won't be needed. And while you're doing all that, I'll call Walt myself and tell him about that nasty laryngitis that will be keeping him at home. After that, I need to talk to you and your mother about tonight."

0000000000

With her calls completed a few minutes later, Kara walked into her mentor's office. Since Cat had only one call to make, she was already done and waiting for her. Planning her mother's contribution to the upcoming interview took only a few minutes. Introducing Cat and her mother to the new Cisco Ramon broaches Kara had for them and showing them how to use them took only a few minutes more. As they finished the final details, Cat turned to Kara.

"Kara, please make a lunch reservation for 12:30 today for two at L'Auberge. I'd like to introduce your mother to some good French cooking. And that will give you some time to meet your friend Lena Luther. Yes, I know about your lunch dates with your favorite source."

Kara had opened her mouth at her boss' second sentence to object. At her third, she shut it again. Which prompted an amused Alura to raise a pointed eyebrow in Kara's direction.

"And, in the meantime, Chief Judicator," Cat continued, "I'll need your daughter's help for the next couple of hours. You can wait on my balcony if you like, or you can wait in Kara's office."

"Thank you, Miss Grant," Alura replied, "but I think I would like to walk around the area and look around. The last time I was here, I was too busy for sightseeing. Should I be back by 12:00 or 12:15?"

"12:15 will be fine, __Ieiu__," Kara said, as she caught Cat's signal and walked her mother out of Cat's office, took her to the elevator, hugged her again, and returned to her old desk. While she was waiting for Cat to call for assistance, she placed a quick call to Lena to confirm that she would be free for lunch.

0000000000

"Hello, Kara," Lena Luthor said as her favorite reporter walked into her office, "How are you this fine day?"

"I'm very worried about something."

"What's wrong?"

"Can you keep this a deep background conversation for the next few days? After that, you can shout it to the world if you want to."

That took Lena aback. James had told her what the term deep background meant: information given to a reporter that could never be repeated. She looked into her friend's eyes, saw the fear in them, and nodded.

"And can you answer one question; where will you be tonight at 7:45?"

"Here, working. As you know, my paper chase never stops. Why?"

"Because someone will call or email you around that time and you'll need to do what they ask you to do. Don't worry; it won't be anything illegal, immoral, or fattening." Kara tried to grin. Her attempt was not successful.

"Kara, you're starting to get me worried; what's going on?"

"I made a bad mistake a couple of years ago, and I didn't tell you something then that I should have. Telling you then would have meant a change in our friendship, telling you now risks blowing it up entirely, but you are going to learn it very soon, and I can't let you learn it from anyone but me. It's something Eliza, Alex, and some other people know because they were told by others or found out in various ways, but I, personally, have told this to only one other person ever."

"Did you do something wrong?" Lena said.

"Not in a general sense. But you may think that keeping this information from you counts as wrong. But before I tell you what this information is, I want to tell you why I've kept it to myself. What I'm going to say next is something you will hear confirmed later from other, unbiased sources, but to make a long story short, this information I want to tell you has proved to be very dangerous to the people who know it. It triggered the twelve-year disappearance of my adoptive father, Jeremiah Danvers who we believed dead for almost all of that time. And if he is now really dead, as he very well could be, this information will have played a key role in killing him. And last year somebody who shouldn't have had this information but had it anyway, came within ten seconds of killing Alex as a direct result. So if I had ever told anybody what I am about to tell you, my action would have increased the potential risk of harm to Alex and Eliza and I have had to take that risk very seriously. Now, I know you wouldn't tell anyone deliberately. But when the number of people who know something increases, the likelihood of that information getting to people who shouldn't have it also increases."

"After all the times' industrial espionage types have targeted L-Corp, I can't disagree with you there. But are you sure you want to tell me even now?" Lena asked, "If it risks putting Alex and your Mom into more of that kind of danger, I don't mind not knowing."

"That's generous of you. But you need to know this. And you also need to know the other reason I've kept my mouth shut."

"And that is?" Lena asked.

"I'm selfish,"

Lena chuckled and raised her eyebrows. "You're kidding."

"No, I mean it. Here's why," Kara replied, "As I said, this is something that is not to my discredit in general, but knowing it does make a big change in how people relate to me. And while it is something that is a part of me, it wasn't always a part of me. So, even though I've had it for some years now, I still think of this thing as you might think of a coat: something you put on and you take off."

"What does this have to do with me?" Lena asked.

"Because you've been the one person who knows me without the coat and who likes me as I am without the coat. Everybody else in my private life knows about the coat and I see how knowing about the coat changes how they deal with me because I knew a few of them before they knew about the coat and after they knew about it. And I'm weak enough that I can't wear the coat all the time. I need a place where I can just be me–without the coat. And you, Lena Luthor, have been that place for me, and for that, no matter what happens next, I can't thank you enough. Because you've been the friend the real me has desperately needed in these last few years. And because I needed you not to know about it, I was selfish and didn't tell you about my coat. But as I said before, it will soon be public knowledge and I can't let you hear it from anyone else."

"Then you'd better tell me, hadn't you?"

"Yes," Kara said, "It's best to start with my original name. It was Kara Zor-El before the Danvers' adopted me."

"Zorel? Is that Swiss or German?" Lena asked.

"Neither," Kara replied as she took a deep breath and visibly forced herself to look her friend in the eye, "It's Kryptonian."

The word hung in the room.

Until Kara reached up, let down her hair, and took off her glasses.

And Lena Luthor found herself staring into the terrified eyes of Supergirl.

"Oh, my god . . . "


	3. Sometimes it's Wise to Surprise Her

Sometimes it's wise to surprise her

_The second day _

It was three in the afternoon when the new Director made her daily round of all the DEO HQ duty stations to keep current on what was going on. All was routine until she asked Brainiac if he had anything of interest to report.

"Nothing really, except the Secret Service wanted to confirm the security status of one of our consultants."

"Oh, which consultant?"

"It was your mother, Dr. Eliza."

"Did they say why?"

"No, they didn't. But they were happy when I confirmed her TS/SCI clearance. But there's something about her clearance I hadn't seen before – there was no listing of authorized compartments on her file."

As she listened, a chill ran-down Alex's spine. She knew her mother's occasional consulting for the DEO gave her Top Secret and Sensitive Compartment Information clearance. But such clearance was usually narrowly restricted to particular subjects and projects (called compartments) and a list of compartments the holder was authorized to enter was inevitably present in the holder's file. In her mother's case, there had been a slip-up.

"When did they call?" Alex asked, "And do you have the name and number of the agent who called you?"

"They called around 10:30 this morning," Brainy replied, "And the agent's name is Alison McGuigan. Here's her number," he handed her a slip of paper, "And she said she was with the detail. Is that a research group?"

Alex looked daggers at him. "Sometimes, I forget that you are this incredible combination of knowledge and ignorance. No, the Detail isn't a research group, it's Presidential Security Detail which guards the President, and you should have told me about this earlier. But at least you've told me now." She turned and went to her office. She had a file to search and a call to make.

00000000000

When Eliza's phone rang, the _Ride of the Valkyries_ theme told her who the caller was. But when she answered it, she was surprised to hear the secure line protocol which her daughter never used with her. After she pressed the key combination that secured the call, she spoke, "Hello Alex," she said, "What's going on?"

"Are you in National City, Mom?"

"Yes, Kara brought me back last night."

"I'm not surprised. Why did my boss's minders ask us to clear you for a meeting with him?"

"We'd best talk about that in person. Maybe we can have dinner together. I can be at your place at 5:30. I've baked a blueberry pie for you."

"You're trying to bribe me, aren't you?" her daughter asked.

"You always were a smart girl," Eliza replied.

"And you're dodging the question. That's something you never let either of us get away with."

"Of course not; it's rude. But I'm not dodging the question. I answered it as best I can right now."

For a moment, Alex was silent. Then she said, "I see. I'll be home at 5:30."

"Just as I said, you always were a smart girl."

0000000000

Alex made sure she left the DEO with ample time to meet her deadline. And she brought a colleague with her. As she opened her apartment door, the delicious smells of an Eliza Danvers cooked turkey dinner, and blueberry pie wafted into her nostrils.

"Hello, Mom," she called.

"Hello, Alex," Eliza replied as she gave her daughter a full hug. Then she noticed the man standing in the doorway, "Come in Brainiac, I'm sorry I didn't see you."

"Don't worry, Dr. Danvers; I'm not staying. The Director wanted me to make sure that there are no bugs in the place. And there aren't. And there won't be." He placed a small box on the table by the door and flicked a switch. "Goodnight ladies," With that, he turned away and let the door close.

"That was quick." Eliza commented, "In that case, dinner is ready, Alex. We'll talk after we eat."

Alexandra Danvers was a double Ph.D., a brilliant researcher, a fiendishly clever interrogator, a highly commended DEO leader and agent, and adept at dealing out precisely targeted violence whenever it was necessary. But she had never been able to force her mother to do anything her mother didn't want to do. So, she bowed to the inevitable.

"I'm hungry," she said.

"I thought you might be," Eliza grinned.

0000000000

As the two women finished dinner, Alex asked her question, "Mom, why are you meeting with my big boss?" 

"Kara told me what happened yesterday," Eliza replied, "So I went to see Cat Grant and found out that she already knew, and that she was resigning from her position and she has returned to her role as CEO of CatCo as of this morning."

"Yes, I know," Alex commented. "Kara called me last night to tell me. But, sorry, go on."

"So I told Cat about how Max Lord and I had been involved with the last phase of the Myriad operation – which I have discovered is still an unclassified event – and I asked her to set up a meeting between your boss, Mr. Lord and myself. This way, Mr. Lord, who has already agreed, can tell the story of the second part of Myriad and why Supergirl working with the government was essential to the outcome. In other words, he'll show your boss that it's not a good idea to keep Supergirl from volunteering with law enforcement. And I'll be confirmation."

Alex thought through what her mother had said. Then she said, "Is Kara OK with what you're doing?"

"Yes, when I told her she said, 'You're right. I wish you weren't, but you are.' But what do you think?"

"I think it might work. But you do realize that Cat Grant could also put a spotlight on you, Mom? Not to mention one on me, and a huge one on Kara."

"Do you think that will leave us any worse off than we are now because of the President's decision?"

Alex opened her mouth to say "Yes," but her mind wouldn't let her. Instead, she realized the full danger of the situation her family had been placed in. Inevitably, and sooner rather than later, something would happen, and the lack of Supergirl/government cooperation would be noticed. Questions would be asked. And those questions would be answered. Oh, the President wouldn't need to answer them on the record. No, it was far more likely that one of the White House staffers would be tasked to leak the fact that Supergirl was not trusted because she hid her identity. And that leak would trigger a countrywide quest to uncover Supergirl's other identity by the media and others. And that search would put not only Kara at risk but also her mother and herself.

"I see your point," Alex replied, "If we don't do something like your proposed meeting, Kara will be outed within three months. And we'll be outed with her."

"Exactly," Eliza replied, "So what I'm doing is a necessary risk."

"True enough. But there's something else you haven't told me," Alex continued.

"Oh, what's that?"

"When the Secret Service called Brainy today, he confirmed your safe status, but he noticed that you don't have a compartment list on your TS/SCI authorization."

"And why is that significant?" Eliza asked. 

"Unlimited TS/SCI status is the highest security clearance in the entire US government." Alex replied, "Its' holders have access to everything in the government's classified files. Normally, this status is only held by the President, the congressional Gang of Eight, and the Director of National Intelligence, all of whom oversee the work of the intelligence agencies. Within operational intelligence, not even the CIA and FBI Directors hold it: the only OpIntel person with unlimited TS/SCI status heads the government's single cross-functional intelligence/operations agency, the DEO: in other words. And you are not the President, you're not in oversight, nor are you the head of the DEO. And it's no accident that you hold this clearance. I've checked your file. You've had it for over a decade. And since you became a DEO consultant you've used it: you've checked every single compartment the DEO or Kara has ever been involved in. And last night you went to the DEO, and you copied all of them, except for administrative or operational trivia or secondary Containment details. And I'm not just your daughter, Mom, . . ."

Eliza raised her hand, and Alex stopped. "Alex, have I ever lied to you?"

"Not once."

"Then please don't go where you were about to go. There are valid and authorized reasons why I hold that clearance and why I have used it as I have. I promise you that I won't misuse that information in any way that is outside those parameters, nor will I do anything that will hurt the country any more than your boss has already hurt it. Also, what I've planned may minimize the short-term dangers we face. And I promise you that I'll explain soon. Will you trust me on this?"

"Soon? How soon is soon?" Alex asked.

"Please give me forty-eight hours."

"Deal," Alex replied.

"And on that note," Eliza continued, "You'd better get back to your office. Julia is waiting to see you."

"Why does Dr. Hamilton want to see me?" Alex asked.

"Because she's about to put you on medical leave for the next eight weeks. You haven't taken a vacation in the last four years, and your efficiency ratings are taking a hit."

"Did you put her up to this, Mom?"

"I did point out that you were in violation of policy, and I asked her how long she'd be prepared to let you risk your health, and maybe put a team at risk."

"But I've got too much to do."

"Nonsense. Colonel Lane at Desert Containment can cover for you easily enough. She's done it before."

Alex thought about her just-promoted friend who had run the DEO so smoothly during Myriad, "You win. Now I just have to figure out what to do for eight weeks."

"No, you don't," her mother replied as she handed her daughter a sealed envelope.

"What's this?" Alex asked.

"We're going on a vacation. Open that at exactly 8 pm tonight, no earlier and not one second later, and it will give you all the details."

"Why not earlier?"

"Because I think you'll appreciate the surprise."

"You're being cryptic again. But since you had a good reason the last time, I'll trust you for this one too. But if I take your hint correctly, we're leaving almost immediately?"

Her mother nodded.

"Then you'll have to pack for me, if I have to go see Dr. Hamilton."

"I'll do that. Off you go."

The two women hugged, and then Alex left.

After the door closed, Eliza walked slowly to a side table and picked up the family photo that they'd taken soon after Kara had come to them. Of the four faces in the picture, she looked longest at her husband. Finally, she muttered, "I've tried, Jeremiah, and I'm sorry for Alex's job but, as you said, it's not on the free list for the US government to mess with this family for a second time."

0000000000

"Gee thanks Mom, I do appreciate this surprise." Alex Danvers thought as she read the letter in her hand. It was short and to the point.

_Dear Alex, _

_You will need to sit in on the meeting with the President that I mentioned this afternoon, so turn on your office TV to WCAT channel 9 for their "This Evening" Program right now. Cat tells me that you'll be getting a call from Senator Crane who, as one of the Gang of Eight and Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has the right to ask for your files on all the subjects we will be talking about, so you should collect those files as you listen. In case Senator Crane does not ask for them, you should also include the following items in that package: my complete file and access records, the footage of you shooting Kara during the red K incident, Jonn's chest camera recording and the return of the pod to the DEO with you and Kara the day Kara threw Fort Rozz was thrown into space. Also, after the program ends, email the files to Senator Crane with a copy to the President according to standard DEO procedures. _

_As for our vacation destination; it's Argo: we will leave from the "Superfriend's" office on the accounting floor of CatCo as soon after 9 PM as you can get here. _

_Love_

_Mom_

_PS: I hope you won't be too mad at me for not telling you everything. And yes, Kara knew the whole plan beforehand, but I told her not to tell you. I didn't want you to face a conflict of interest. Keep this letter safe._

"I don't know how mad I'll be until I know what you've done. And who's 'us'?" Alex muttered. She managed to turn on her TV and bring up her computer before her secure phone rang. It was Senator Crane, with the order that her mother had predicted.

0000000000

A few moments before the broadcast finished, a bald man seated in what was supposed to be the most secure cell of the most secure prison in the United States saw Eliza Danvers vanish into the blue-white circle thanks to a TV that had been custom installed for him. Shaking his head, he muttered: "Not a bad gambit for a new player. Congratulations, Dr. Danvers, you have just done my job for me."

0000000000

As the broadcast finished, a rigidly controlled Alex Danvers sent the required files to Senator Crane over the secure government email link (with the President cc'd), walked out to the main hall, ran through the five minute ceremony that turned over command to Lucy Lane, signed out of the DEO on medical leave, hopped on her Ducati and roared off to CatCo to give her mother a piece of her mind.


	4. It's Not Easy to Surprise Her

Ch 4

_One week after That Interview _

There are so many government cars driving around the city that they are effectively invisible to the residents. Which explains why nobody glanced at the car that left a certain airport that morning and drove downtown. It was only when it turned into a narrow street and passed the security checkpoint that it became of interest to several watchers, most on nearby roofs and one at ground level.

It had been seven days since Eliza Danvers had called out the President to his face and an immense furor had followed in her wake. Politicians, editorials, and letters to the editor had lauded or decried her tactics, but most agreed that she had a point, even if they didn't like what she had done about it. Those who thought she had overreacted were countered by others who had realized the inevitable end result of the President's prohibition.

Flocks of reporters (and not a few FBI agents) had descended on CatCo, Redwood University, and Midvale desperate for any scraps of information they could get about the Danvers family, and especially Kara. At CatCo, for all practical purposes, they met silence. The moment the interview credits played, Lena Luthor had sent an all-staff email that informed them of what had occurred and mentioned that Lena would follow her longstanding personal policy of never making public references to her friends, and since most CatCo staffers liked Kara, they were happy to follow Lena's lead.

Despite this, a composite portrait of the girl who was Supergirl had reached the public. A couple of CatCo employees had talked off the record and described an incredibly kind and remarkably efficient colleague. Noonan's waitstaff told of the friendly, cheerful customer who was always ordering extremely large orders. Fellow residents in her apartment building spoke of the quiet girl who always had friends over for dinners.

In contrast, learning about Eliza was easy. As one of the country's leading biomedical engineers, her professional community numbered in the hundreds and many of those folks, both at her university and at other places, were willing to talk. Eliza enjoyed universal professional respect for her research work, and she was recognized as one of her field's finest mentors. A number of Midvale residents who knew the family described her as a loving mother and described a strong family that had grown even closer after her husband's untimely death. They also described Kara's early days in the area with pride of place given to the local woman who recalled how the much younger Kara had saved both herself and her daughter from the crashed car that exploded seconds after Kara had freed a jammed door.

But when the journalists tried to find out about Dr. Alexandra Danvers, they hit a stone wall. Yes, Max Lord had spoken of her bravery and integrity during that infamous interview, but the tech whiz had kept his mouth entirely shut thereafter – most uncharacteristic behavior for him. Her fellow students in both high school and university described Alex as remote and driven, and if she had any law enforcement colleagues, none of them had talked to reporters. Meanwhile, the FBI kept completely silent about what they had learned about the elder Danvers daughter and the rest of her family.

Calls for the President's impeachment were strident, nationwide and ongoing. National City's Mayor, supported by City Council, had issued a statement decrying President Baker's actions in the strongest terms and repeating the city's invitation to Supergirl to work with the NCPD anytime she cared to, a statement taken up by several dozen other city and state governments. That contrasted with the attempt by some Children of Liberty members to firebomb the Danvers house in Midvale, an attempt frustrated by agents of the security firm Cat Grant had thoughtfully hired before leaving for Argo.

But all the commotion seemed far away from the quiet, narrow street as the unobtrusive government sedan pulled into a reserved parking space and the driver got out and opened the rear door for his passenger. The woman who emerged was medium height, dark-haired, and slender. She spoke a word of thanks and moved smoothly towards the nearby building.

A couple of staffers were having a smoke break by the side of the path. Like everybody else in the country, they recognized the reserved face and the air of remote abstraction that marked this woman wherever she went. None of the professional watchers except one could see the visitor's eyes. And so, their alertness level, already at "normal professional paranoia," did not change in the least.

Only the woman waiting by the door saw something more. Of Irish extraction, the talk in her family was that her great-grandmother had had "the sight" a gift the family believed that the waiting redhead had inherited in full measure. Over the years, she had shown an eerily accurate intuition when meeting new people. Now, as she saw the visitor coming towards her, the greeter kept her face impassive as her normal professional paranoia shot up the scale to "SUPREME DANGER" mode in less than an instant.

"Dr. Luthor, welcome. Please come with me," the redhead said.

"Thank you," said Lena, as she fell into step beside her guide as they walked through the entrance.

It's only a short walk from the entrance – a few steps through a lobby, a left turn into a corridor, a right into another corridor a few seconds later followed by another few steps down the hall. Along the way, visitors pass through several visible and invisible metal detectors, none of which went off, even though the greeter was armed. The overwhelming majority of people who come to this place for the first time walk slowly, looking everywhere, memorizing the furnishings and the pictures on the walls, but this visitor was laser-focused on something else. She moved quickly, looking nowhere but straight ahead, something her companion did not fail to notice. When they turned into the second last office on the left, near the end of the hall, the redhead walked directly to the far wall, opened the other, oddly angled door for the guest, and the two women walked into the next room.

"Thank you for coming, Dr. Luthor," said President Baker, rising from behind his desk in the Oval Office. "I trust you had a good flight."

"I did."

"Would you like some refreshment; coffee, tea?" He saw her head shake and continued, "No, then please, sit down." He gestured to one of the couches and sat on the other one. As he did so, he noticed that his security chief had not left the room, contrary to instructions. That was a signal. Obviously, Agent McGuigan had seen something. But what? He knew he would find out later.

"You might be wondering why I asked you to stop by on your way home from that conference in Metropolis?"

"It crossed my mind. I thought you might want a progress report on the additional harun-el that you had asked me to synthesize. But you could have got that answer over the phone, the way you did when you commissioned the project. And your question suggests that you do have something else in mind."

"You're right, I do. I need to ask you some questions. And I promise you your answers will not be made public in any way. And I'm not asking these questions for my own personal or political benefit. I am asking for what you can tell me for no other reason but the country's good. You own CatCo. Have any of your employees there used the term 'deep background?'"

"Yes."

"Then you'll understand what I mean when I say that this needs to be a deep background conversation. Will you accept that?"

"Provided you don't ask me to participate in a crime, then yes," Lena replied.

"No crime, Dr. Luthor. Don't quote me, but I mishandled the situation after Lockwood's arrest and I need information about Supergirl if I'm going to have any chance of getting her back."

"Then before you go any further, I must tell you that I agree with you about the way you handled the situation. You should also know that I'm a biased source for information on Supergirl. She's saved my life too many times for it to be otherwise."

"Thank you for being frank. I can understand that you have a general bias where Supergirl is concerned, but I don't think you'll be biased on the specific question I need you to answer," the President replied,

"Here's the situation: my reading of Supergirl was that she was a straightforward type, a volunteer using her powers to help people in need without regard to any broader picture. I felt that I had no alternative but to ask for her identity to defuse the crisis Lockwood had raised. Then I find myself hit with a very effective political ambush. Before I can even try to make things right, I need to know something. As I'm sure you can understand, what I need to know is this: did I read Supergirl wrong and did she craft that ambush? Or, if she didn't design it, who did? As I see it, if it wasn't Supergirl, there are at least three possibilities, Cat Grant, Alex Danvers, and Eliza Danvers."

"You said, "at least three possibilities," Mr. President, "Who are the others?" Lena asked.

"Perhaps yourself; apparently you are a great friend of hers," the President replied.

"Those FBI agents have been thorough," Lena replied, "And while I could say thanks for the compliment, I'll have to pass. You'll have to accept my word on this, but it wasn't me who set you up. Even though Kara has been a good friend over the last few years, she never told me she was Supergirl until eight hours before your interview with Cat and she only told me because she knew that the news of her identity was about to go public and she wanted me to hear it from her. And no, she didn't tell me anything about how she expected the news to break. All she told me was that I would need to be in my office that evening and follow some instructions I would receive, which were, of course, to watch _This Evening_. And that's what I did."

President Baker nodded.

"Now let's look at your other options. But before I begin, let me say that when you asked for this meeting, I thought that you might ask me that question. As it happens, I've had some personal reasons for giving serious thought to a related issue which is why what I'll say next is on the tip of my tongue."

Lena paused, and again the President nodded.

"Option one is Kara, and I doubt she designed the ambush."

"And your reasons are?"

"To compensate for my bias, let me start with the performance evaluations for Kara's first three years at CatCo when she was Cat Grant's executive assistant. Working for someone who is widely believed to be the most demanding boss in America, Kara earned a "Beyond Excellent" rating in all three years – the only "Beyond Excellent" ratings Cat has ever given. Cat's detailed comments tell us that Kara is very, very smart, is a genius at multitasking, and has a very high EQ. So yes, Kara is smart enough to think this up, and she has the emotional intelligence to put herself in other people's shoes and figure out how they might react to her actions. That said, however, both Kara and Supergirl prefer an open, direct approach, not a subtle one. She does not do well in chess. And whoever conceived this ambush is somebody capable of subtle and sophisticated political infighting. And that's something that's totally uncharacteristic of both Kara and Supergirl."

"You seem to be taking her at face value. Could she have been playing you?" asked the President.

"That question is exactly why I've been thinking about this situation. I think that's very unlikely, for several reasons. First, as you probably know, I'm not a Luthor by birth, but by adoption."

The President nodded.

Lena continued, "But being raised a Luthor meant that I got a first-class training in spotting phonies, combined with a sharply realistic take on the human capacity for duplicity. Luthors spot most liars very quickly, Mr. President. Second, if Kara was playing me to spy on the local Luthor, there was no need for her to play dumb in chess. Do you play?"

"Not since high school and I wasn't very good at it."

"Then you might not realize that when you are playing the same person on a regular basis, as Kara and I have been doing, that it's very hard to dumb down your playing without making some smart moves from time to time. So a smart person trying to downplay their chess skills will inevitably look erratic. Kara's playing has the shortcoming of being consistently straightforward and thus thoroughly predictable, but it's never been erratic. That's why I rule out an attempt to play me in chess."

"I understand," said the President.

"Turning to why I don't think she was playing me in general: the first objection is that she believed me and believed in me on a number of occasions when the evidence seemed to establish that I was a second Lex, for example, when Lillian escaped prison. If she was playing me, that was the perfect opportunity to put me behind bars, yet several DEO staffers have told me that her advocacy on my behalf was the only thing that kept them looking at other alternatives and me from being tried and falsely convicted. Second, she didn't have to come to see me and tell me she was Supergirl when the news was about to break. She could have let me find out like everybody else. Even more to the point, she went out of her way to tell me the news in a specific order. First, she told me that some big news would be made public that would affect our friendship, then she told me why she had kept that news from me, and only then did she tell me she was Supergirl. During the first two steps in that process, she was calm and focused and showed no fear of the prospect of publicity. That tells me she knew exactly how the news would break and that she knew Alex and Eliza would be safe from any fallout. Yet from the way she told me she was Supergirl, it was obvious that she had valued her friendship with me and was terrified of losing it. So no, I don't think she has been playing me all along, and that means it's not likely that it was Kara who set you up."

"Is it possible that she's a brilliant actress? After all, she's fooled everybody into thinking she was human."

"You are confusing acting with hiding some abilities. Those are two very different things. Yes, Kara was very good at keeping her abilities to herself, but she is no good at all at hiding her feelings from those that know her. I've seen her when she is afraid of something. Why would she be terrified of losing me as a friend if she had just been playing me all along? And that gives you one bit of hope, Mr. President."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because if Kara Danvers was terrified as losing me as a friend during our meeting, then it's likely that she had not ruled out every possibility that she might return to earth. At least, that was her state of mind at that time. What it is now, I can't say, of course."

Once more the President nodded, "Go on."

"The next possibility is Alex Danvers. As you know, my consulting contracts with the DEO have meant that I've worked with her on several occasions. I've also met her socially quite often, usually at Kara's parties. She manages the DEO effectively, so she has some political skills. She must have known Kara was Supergirl, and she may have known of the agreement her mother made with Donaldson."

"But?" asked the President, seeing that Lena had stopped.

"But if Alex Danvers had designed the ambush, Max Lord would have played no part in it. I've seen my brother's feelings about Superman up close and personal, so it's fair to say that I know something about the extent to which it is possible for one person to distrust and despise another. Yet, Lex on Superman doesn't even begin to compare with the way Alex Danvers distrusts and despises Maxwell Lord. I've wanted to bring him in on a couple of projects I've worked for the DEO and Alex wouldn't consider the possibility for a second. A second point: we tend to see Supergirl as this mythic hero with no weaknesses except Kryptonite. And that's a view shared by most of the DEO staffers. Not Alex: watch her with an injured Supergirl, as I have, and you'll see that she knows that her sister has the heart of a child. And for Alex Danvers that heart is the most precious thing in the universe: she will not let it be hurt if she can do anything to stop it. I've seen that Kryptonian pod that Alex used to rescue her sister that night. She had to fly it right next to her sister, open the hatch to space, stuff her sister into the same seat she was in and shut the hatch again within fifteen seconds or she would have been dead herself. So no, I don't think Alex was the planner of the reveal. It's more likely one of the other two."

Once more the President nodded, "That leaves Cat Grant and Eliza Danvers."

"Actually, for all practical purposes, it leaves Eliza," Lena countered, "Yes, Supergirl could have gone to Cat, who might or might not have known her civilian identity, and told her about the agreement Donaldson had made with her mother. But even if Kara bought into Cat's plan, the crucial detail is this: they would have had to persuade Eliza Danvers to go along with them. And the timetable tells against that."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because it all happened too quickly, it was less than thirty-six hours from prohibition to ambush." The President nodded as Lena continued, "I'm familiar with Eliza's work. She is a very careful scientist, and I know careful scientists: my record says that I'm one myself. Our training mitigates against making major decisions on the fly. If this landed on Eliza out of the blue from Cat, even with Kara's backing, I doubt that Eliza would have come on board in the less than the day that the timetable allows for. And I don't think that Kara would have bought into any suggestion that would have outed Eliza and Alex if it hadn't been signed off on by one of those two. She is as committed to them as they are to her. The only reason Kara came out as Supergirl was to save Alex, who was a passenger on that plane she saved. And we also have to remember that Kara blames herself for what happened to her adoptive father."

"Why do you say that?"

"As you know, Jeremiah Danvers is believed to have died in a plane crash over a decade ago. When Kara told me who she was, she also said that what happened to him was one of the reasons why she kept her secret from me for so long. According to her, she had made a childish mistake one night: despite her parents' instructions not to use her powers, she took Alex flying. And it was that flight that brought the DEO invasion to their house and ultimately led to Jeremiah entering government service, which in turn led to his disappearance or death."

"I understand," said the President, "But you also said Dr. Jeremiah Danvers is 'believed to have died' and 'disappearance or death.' Are you telling me he's alive?"

"What Kara told me that day was the family had thought he was dead for most of the last twelve years, but something has happened that indicates that he might be still alive. That said, the family is not certain one way or the other. She didn't say any more than that."

"Thank you. But to get back to the main issue: you think Eliza Danvers is the likeliest candidate?"

"Yes, for several reasons. First: she knew her daughter was Supergirl, second, she made the deal with Donaldson, a deal that demonstrates her capacity to anticipate trouble. Third, she has the political infighting skills of the department chair who has kept her department entirely focused on science despite working in a university that is known to be strongly "woke" and, fourth, she pulled off what many columnists and politicians have called the sharpest political ambush they've ever seen. Finally, even though the relationship came about through adoption, Eliza is every inch Kara's mother as shown by her willingness to out herself and her family if the government moved against her daughter. And since Kara loves her back with that same level of intensity, the real challenge you face will be getting Eliza to sign on to whatever option you propose to bring Kara back."

"Would it surprise you to learn that the FBI agents investigating this matter came to remarkably similar conclusions?" asked the President.

"Not really," Lena replied, "If you know the people involved, the analysis is simple. But if the FBI has already come to similar conclusions, why ask me for my opinion?"

"Because, Dr. Luthor, I've got an idea on how to get Supergirl back in harness and I'll need your help to execute it. And part of that plan is that harun-el you have been working on."

"Part of the plan?" Lena asked, "What's the rest, if I may ask?"

"You may," replied the President with a smile, "And since you'll have to know it anyway, I'll tell you."

"And why will I have to know your plan?" Lena asked.

"Because another part of the plan is that I want you to become the first United States Ambassador to Argo."


	5. It's a Nice Place to Visit

_The asteroid Argo – the day after _The Interview

It was local night when the travelers arrived in Argo City.

When the explosion destroyed Krypton, the force field and anti-gravity field that physicist Ard-En had set up turned the city of Argo and its surrounding countryside – the best farmland on Krypton – into a small asteroid. The Jewel mountain range, loaded with mines, together with the forest uplands and rivers that led up to it was also within the field. Thanks to their cold fusion reactors, the Argonauts had effectively infinite power. Consequently, it was easy for them to simulate Raolight, the day-night cycle and Krypton-normal gravity. So they were in no immediate danger when they set out for the next galaxy and the yellow star they had identified as their new home.

Dr. Eliza Danvers was very grateful for that fact as she woke up on the morning after her arrival. Quietly, she slipped into the next room and enjoyed the freshener that her hostess had demonstrated on their arrival. Then she dressed, went to the main room of the house.

When she looked out the window, the first thing she noticed was the sky. It wasn't blue. Instead it was a deep orange, even though the two artificial suns were already high in a cloudless sky. Her daughter had told her what to expect, but seeing it was still a shock.

The second thing she noticed was the immediate neighborhood. The house was medium-sized, set in what seemed to be a typical residential area of the city. A few similar houses dotted the side-street next to it. The only thing that set this house apart from its neighbors was that it had a secondary wing in its large backyard where it bordered on a large park. And both yard and park were carefully tended.

The third thing Eliza noticed was the vegetation. Unlike most earth plants, the plants in both yard and park looked wiry and tough. Flowers were few and leaves many and thin. The root systems of many plants started above ground and it was clear that they were exceptionally well developed compared with earth plants.

"Survivors," Eliza muttered, as she remembered that Krypton had been a dying world. But these plants hadn't given up. As she observed the tenacious grip of Argo's plants on the soil of their world, she took courage for the challenges she knew she still had to face.

Behind her came a voice, "Good morning, Dr. Danvers. Did you sleep well?" The words were not in English, but Eliza understood their meaning. As Eliza recognized the speaker's voice, she knew that she now faced the first of those challenges. As she turned, ready to give an account of her long stewardship, she told her nerves to shut up as she looked Kara's mother in the eye.

"Good morning, Chief Judicator." Eliza was unsurprised to find that the words she had spoken were not English. "The language tutor has worked as you hear."

The other woman nodded, "When Kal-El arrived with his bride, we discovered that our educator devices could be programmed for human brainwaves. Now that you know our language, you can learn much of our sciences, medicine for example, in the same way."

"Thank you, I would like that."

"You are most welcome. It is the least we can do to repay our debt to you."

"A debt? To me? You owe me nothing, Chief Judicator."

"Please call me Alura, Dr. Danvers. And I disagree. Both Argo and I owe you a very great debt. You raised my daughter when I could not. You have loved her as if she was your own despite enduring the loss of your husband and Alexandra's father due to Kara's disobedience and you never once blamed her for your loss. And the result of your loving care is that Kara has grown to be everything her father and I had dreamed she would be. She is loving, wise, and wholehearted. I don't know how you made this happen, but I thank you from my heart. At the very least, if I may use an earth expression, Dr. Danvers, you have made a friend, no, a sister, for life."

Eliza Danvers let out a long breath as she felt the weight of Argo fall from her shoulders. "Then it's Eliza, Alura, and thank you. But don't give me too much credit. You and your husband gave Kara a great start. And from the moment Jeremiah and I saw Kara and the grief in her eyes, we couldn't do anything but love her. And, as you know, I had Alex to help me."

"I know, I heard what you told your world last night," Alura replied as she tapped her ear, "Yet if earth's children are anything like Kryptonian ones, and from some of the stories Kara has told me I believe that they are, we both know that you had the harder part of the job."

Eliza nodded, sensing that Kara's mother had more to say.

"And I suspect your job is not yet finished. I heard what you told your President. His is a small heart and small hearts do not forget being overmatched by big ones. He will not let the matter end where you left it last night. You, Alexandra, and Kara if she returns, will face considerable risks."

In that moment, Eliza knew where Kara's caring heart and bright intelligence had come from.

"If there is anything I or Argo can do to help, ask and it will be done."

Eliza caught her breath, "Thank you. You sound certain of that. I know you chair your High Council, but shouldn't you discuss anything I propose with them first?"

"As you will see, I have good reason to expect that obtaining their support will not be a problem."

"That's good to know," Eliza replied, but then a thought struck her, "I have one question though. Why do you think I might have blamed Kara for Jeremiah's reported death?"

The other woman was surprised. "Kara did not tell you? No, she would not do that. She has always cared for others before she looks to herself," Alura paused, but Eliza only nodded agreement and waited.

"Your husband forbade Kara to use her super hearing when the DEO came. Kara was a child with immature self-discipline: would she have obeyed or would she have listened to the conversation?"

Eliza's voice was flat with realization as the weight of Argo crushed down once more. "She listened. And she's been blaming herself ever since, hasn't she?"

The other woman's voice was sympathetic, "She has not said so, but she was never able to hide her feelings from me."

Eliza expelled her breath in a sigh as she shook her head. "I should have seen it."

"You had just lost your husband whom you loved; it is understandable that you did not. We will talk more about it later. But for now," said the Kryptonian whose chair faced the window, "I see Miss Grant coming from the guest wing to join us, and I hear Alexandra coming downstairs. Perhaps we could postpone further discussion in favor of a morning meal?"

0000000000

As breakfast ended and Cat Grant and her mother left to clean up, Alex deliberately waited until she and Alura were alone in the room.

"You wished to speak to me, Alexandra?"

"Yes. There is something I must tell you before we do anything else."

"Oh?"

"After you returned to Argo after the Reign incident, I asked Kara if she had given you the full account of your sister's death."

The other woman looked ten years older, "And she told you that her account did not go into detail? That she only told me that Astra was killed in a firefight with government agents?"

"Yes. If you would like to know the full story, I can tell you."

"Your mother called you a law enforcement professional last night. You were involved in the incident?"

"I was the deputy team commander."

Alura took a deep breath, "Then yes, please tell me what happened."

"Astra was about to kill a fellow member of my team. And I was in a position to stop her. And I did. But stopping her meant a killing strike. And the after-action review confirmed that my action was correct."

"A strike? With a kryptonite knife?"

"Close enough. It was a sword. How did you know? And how did you know it was kryptonite?"

"Had it been a bullet, you would have said 'a killing shot.' And Kara has told me about Kryptonite and its effects. They are similar to those of harun-el, which is why we handle that element so carefully."

"You seem to be taking this very calmly," Alex ventured.

"I have known the basic circumstances of Astra's death for more than six of your months, Alexandra, and while I still grieve her loss, the shock is gone. Also, we Kryptonians recognize the same distinction between murder and the legitimate use of force that you observe on Earth. As a judge, I recognize that Astra was engaging in criminal activity, and no moral blame can attach to one who legitimately stopped her from carrying it out. Also, you must know that I sentenced my sister to Fort Rozz. And that means that I cannot point a finger at you for your actions without recognizing that my other fingers are pointing at me, particularly when I owe you and your mother a debt I can never repay."

Alex raised her eyes to the face she still unwillingly saw in dreams, "Thank you for your understanding."

"You are welcome, Alexandra. But perhaps we should meet your mother and Miss Grant in the main room and plan how to best spend the day."

Deciding how to spend the first two days did not take long. Alura had taken a week's vacation and planned to show them the main public sites of the former Kryptonian capital including Zor-El Hall (the seat of the high council and the territorial representatives), the Library of Krypton, the Science Guild and similar historic sites.

On the second day Kara arrived. Over the next two days, she took Alex, Eliza and Cat on a more personal tour of her favorite places.

After dinner on Kara's first evening, the sisters and Cat left for a stroll. When Eliza moved to join them, Alura gave her a small signal. When the others were gone, Alura turned to the other woman.

"Thank you for staying behind. There is something I need to ask you."

"Oh, what's that?"

Alura spoke in English, "I noticed today that Kara does not call you "Mom" or "Mother. Why does she call you Eliza, instead?"

"When Kara was in suspended animation in the phantom zone the language tutor in the ship taught her English so when she arrived, she was able to tell Kal-El and then us, what had happened to her. Because her ship placed her in suspended animation when she was in the Phantom Zone, when she met us it had been only a few hours before in her experience that Krypton had exploded. As she may have told you, she was watching Krypton when it exploded. In that situation, I knew I couldn't say 'Call me Mom,' so I let her call me Eliza."

"I understand. Thank you."

When the sisters and Cat returned, Alura took Kara aside.

"Kara, I noticed something today. You call Dr. Danvers 'Eliza.' Why do you not call her Mother or Mom?"

Kara thought for a moment.

"I never told you, but I saw Krypton blow up. Seeing the explosion, I knew that you and Father were dead."

Wisely, Alura only nodded and waited for her daughter to continue.

"When Kal-El brought me to the Danvers, almost the first thing Eliza said to me was that she couldn't replace you but that she would look after me for you. When I asked what I should call her she said, 'Eliza.'"

Alura thought for a moment and replied, this time in English.

"She raised you well. I do not see how I and your father could have done better. She has been everything we would have tried to have been for you. She has been your Mother in everything but carrying you to term. I know you respect and love her, but you should honor her by calling her by the title she has earned."

Kara replied in Kryptonian, "I can't do that, Mom. A person can only have one mother and that's you."

Again, Alura replied in English, "I am not asking you to call Dr. Danvers, Ieiu, Kara. You are correct that I was your Ieiu on Krypton. But Dr. Danvers has been every bit as much your Mother on earth as I am your Ieiu here. Both of us owe her a debt we can never repay, but at least you can pay part of it by giving her the honor she has earned."

Kara continued in English, "I'll think about it, Ieiu. Good night."

"Goodnight Kara."

0000000000

On the fourth day, two messages arrived from Earth.

The first was addressed to Alura as the President of the High Council. President Baker wanted to discuss opening diplomatic and trade relationships and he attached a copy of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations for the Council's information. The second message told Alex that the President had declassified the existence, occupants and removal of Fort Rozz, and he asked Alex to pass on any information about Fort Rozz and its occupants that she had with her to the Argonauts as a good faith gesture which would be followed up in more detail later. Finally, he ordered her to appear at a sitting of the Joint House and Senate Judiciary Committees that was scheduled to take place in two weeks.

The next day the travelers split up. Alura had asked Kara, Alex and Eliza to visit Kara's childhood friend Thara, now Argo's police chief, to update her on the fate of Fort Rozz and its inhabitants. Thara noted their information, raised her eyebrows at a couple of points, and then proceeded to conduct a detailed interrogation over the next several hours that emptied the women's brains of every single detail any of them knew about the Fort Rozz prisoners and related events, an exercise that left Eliza and Kara drained and Alex impressed. Meanwhile Cat had taken advantage of the absence of the Danvers family to conduct a detailed and wide-ranging interview with Alura.

The travelers were just finishing dinner with Alura that night when Thara arrived. She wanted to talk to Cat.


	6. It's Not Such a Hard Spot to Be On

_Washington, DC (Three weeks after _That Interview_)_

The East Front of the United States Capitol overlooks a wide grassy lawn. At 9:30 on Monday mornings, that lawn is usually deserted: most of those who work here are already inside, and the tourists arrive later.

But this morning, two people stood waiting on a path near the lawn's far end. The first a tall black man, listened as the smaller woman beside him spoke decisively.

The outcry following Cat's return to the ranks of TV interviewers had forced the House and Senate Judiciary Committees to mount a joint investigation of the information revealed by Presidents Donaldson and Baker, Alura Zor-El, Eliza Danvers, Max Lord, and Maggie Sawyer. The President, on the urgent advice of the Gang of Eight, had declassified the existence of the Department of Extra-Normal Operations in a statement that was purposefully vague about precisely what the Department did. Also declassified were all matters connected with the acquisition, retention and disappearance of a possibly Kryptonian spaceship, anything related with Fort Rozz or its inmates, the death of Astra In-Ze, an abridged version of the Director's resume, and an announcement that Dr. Elizabeth Danvers was a DEO consultant. And while the media was distracted by these details, all aliens detained in Desert Containment were quietly transferred to a quickly rebuilt wing at Guantanamo Bay.

The actual investigation, however, did not start immediately. Since one of the committees was controlled by Republicans and the other by the Democrats, some political horse-trading had to happen before the hearings could begin. And one of the tradeoffs allowed the President to keep the DEO's functions vague in exchange for not claiming executive privilege when the DEO's Director, Dr. Alexandra Danvers, was subpoenaed to testify in open session on the declassified matters. Everybody knew that the President had a way to communicate with Argo, so nobody was surprised when he advised the committees that Director Danvers would be cutting short her medical leave to appear at today's session.

Which was why Cat Grant and James Olsen stood waiting at the far end of the East Lawn.

Cat had returned from Argo eight days after she left with two articles that kept the Supergirl situation on the nation's front pages and broadcast leads. The first – "One Look Out the Window, and You Know You're Not in Kansas Anymore" – gave a short overview of Argo, Krypton's history, the role the House of El had played in it, and a detailed description of how Argo had survived Krypton's explosion. By three hours after publication, it was the most reprinted and downloaded article in journalism history.

Two days later, Cat released her second article: an extended interview with Supergirl's mother, covering her daughter's childhood, the challenges encountered leading Argo on its interstellar voyage, Alura's hopes for the new planet, and the Kryptonian view of Supergirl's actions in ending Myriad. That article established Alura as a caring mother and an effective leader and Argo as a polity that America could do business with.

And the day before yesterday Cat Grant and CatCo Worldwide Media had once more scooped the world with the announcement from Argo's Office of Diplomacy that Chair Zor-El had personally broken the deadlock in the negotiations to establish diplomatic relations. While an advance team of State Department types was already on Argo making things ready for the arrival of ambassador-designate Lena Luthor, assigning twenty or so Kryptonians to do the same in Washington, DC was a political impossibility – too many people recognized the threat to national security that such a group of Kryptonians would pose. But Chair Zor-El had provided a brilliant solution: she would name an American to select an all-human set-up team for the new embassy and serve as Honorary Consul until the negotiations were completed. Pundits and politicians alike were impressed by her recognition of the problem and the elegance of her solution, even though the new Honorary Consul's name was not immediately released.

And late last night, Cat had finished her fourth article. Depending on what happened in the next few hours, it was scheduled for publication either this evening or tomorrow. James Olsen wanted that article published ASAP and was arguing the point with his boss when the familiar voice spoke from behind them.

"Hello, James, hello, Cat."

The CatCo stalwarts spun around to see a petite Army Colonel in dress uniform. They spoke in unison:

"Well, if it isn't Baby Lane all gussied up," Cat said,

"What are you doing here, Lucy?" asked James.

"Director Danvers asked me to be her lead counsel," Lucy Lane replied.

This time the two from CatCo said the same thing, "Why you?"

"First, because I'm currently on detached duty at the DEO and, as the only lawyer in the Department, it's part of my job to be "of counsel" for any DEO staffers called to testify at hearings like this. Second, at Director Danvers' specific request, I've pulled two of our unclassified files and brought them with me so the Director will have them if needed. And Cat, you should have a USB for me."

"Since you're her counsel . . . ," Cat nodded and handed her a USB drive.

"And here she is," Lucy said, as the expected blue-white circle formed in front of them.

But they were surprised when the slim chestnut-haired woman in black they were expecting was accompanied by someone they did not expect: her mother.

Clearing Capitol security took only a few minutes. When they reached the committee room, the two journalists took their places in the press seats as the TV lights went on – all the networks were broadcasting live – and Alex, Eliza and Lucy moved to the witness table. As Alex and her mother sat down, the Chair spoke.

"Good morning, Director Danvers. Would you please introduce us to your companions?"

"Good morning," Alex replied, "My lead counsel is Colonel Lucille Lane, US Army JAG, currently serving on detached duty. Her co-counsel is Dr. Elizabeth Danvers, JD. Colonel Lane is presently circulating an information package that includes Dr. Danvers' scholastic and bar examination transcripts, bar association membership certificate and three additional documents that will explain why she was chosen for this role. While most of this package is needed for the record, it will be your decision as to whether or not to include the last three items."

The Chair, a congressman from California, frowned as he read the package, "Apprenticed at Barrington, Robertson, Walton and Fair? I know them; they're one of National City's leading law firms. How did you get on there, Dr. Danvers?"

"My brother-in-law, Peter Danvers is one of their partners," Eliza replied, "Around the time my youngest daughter moved to National City, I finished my Psychology degree and needed a new hobby. Peter has often said that I would make a good lawyer, so I took him up on his offer to train me. With email and Skype, I was able to carry out my apprenticeship from home. After I passed the bar exam, I've been "of counsel" to most of the firm's Midvale business and all of its biochemical work for the last couple of years. It's been fascinating."

"I imagine it would be," said the Chair, "I don't think we need to put your legal documents into the record even though that is an impressive bar exam score. But why did you take a Master's in Psychology?"

"After we adopted Kara, we quickly realized that she would need a great deal of help in dealing with the fallout from the tragedy that brought her to us. To get her that help, I took some courses in Psychology on a part-time basis and continued to work toward the degree after I lost my husband."

"Thank you. I don't believe we'll need to put your other documentation into the record," He looked around at his colleagues, who all nodded, "I believe our questions today will deal entirely with unclassified matters."

"Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate that observation," Eliza replied, "And I trust that it will turn out to be correct."

"Then we'll begin in a moment. But before we do, I'd like to ask a question to which I'm sure all of us would like to know the answer, even though it is not technically within the scope of our inquiry. Dr. Danvers, did Supergirl arrive safely on Argo?"

"Yes, she did, and she is well," Eliza replied.

"Thank you. Then we'll begin," and the Chair rapped the gavel, "This meeting of the Joint Committees is now in session. The pending business has to do with the various matters that were raised in the interview Cat Grant conducted with the President, Dr. Elizabeth Danvers and Maxwell Lord. Director Danvers, thank you for coming."

Alex nodded.

"In the interests of saving time and avoiding clouding the issues what might be called partisan grandstanding, my colleagues have submitted their initial questions to me, and I will ask the initial questions on each topic as I deem best. If any of my colleagues believes you need to provide further detail in your answers, they will ask you to do so. Is that understood?"

Again, Alex nodded. Her face was relaxed and composed. Meanwhile, at the press table, Cat Grant and James Olsen exchanged glances. This was not the standard procedure for Congressional committees.

"I propose to ask my questions in this order: first those concerning the interview I just mentioned, second, those concerning General Astra In-Ze, next those concerning the arrival of Fort Rozz on earth, fourth those concerning how Fort Rozz was used to generate those universal headaches and Supergirl's actions to end the threat, and finally, questions concerning the possibly Kryptonian spacecraft that Max Lord said that you used to rescue Supergirl that night. Would this order create any issues for you?"

"I don't believe it would create any significant issues. I have seen the declassification notices."

"Then we'll begin with the interview. When did you know that your mother planned to ambush the President?"

"If by ambush, you mean Dr. Danvers informing the President that our family faced being deprived of our constitutional right to privacy by the President's request that my sister reveal her civilian identity, the answer is: the moment she did it. That was not what I had been led to expect would happen."

"And what did you expect would happen?"

"Earlier that afternoon, I was told by an internal staffer that the Presidential Security Detail had asked about Dr. Danvers' security clearance. I knew, of course, that Dr. Danvers had a security clearance; for some years she has been a valued consultant to the DEO on Supergirl matters and xenobiological issues. When I learned that the Detail had inquired, I called Dr. Danvers on a secure phone and, without breaking security, I told her that we needed to meet in a way that told Dr. Danvers what we would be talking about. Dr. Danvers, quite properly, gave no details over the phone, but she agreed to meet with me at 5:30 that afternoon for dinner. I didn't try to push the meeting earlier because I was working on an urgent briefing paper. When we met, Dr. Danvers told me that my sister had told her of the President's decision and that she, Dr. Danvers, had reached out to Cat Grant to broker a meeting with the President, Max Lord and herself to discuss the Myriad incident. She believed that such a discussion would demonstrate the great value of having Supergirl continue to work with the government. She did not tell me when and where she expected that meeting to occur. Also, during that meeting, Dr. Danvers told me that she had reminded the DEO medical officer that I had been working without a vacation for several years, an action that prompted my current medical leave."

"Why was your mother made a consultant to the DEO?" This question came from a congressman from the other party.

"The previous Director recognized that Supergirl needed specialized personal and emotional support due to the circumstances that brought her to us. He also recognized that neither the DEO, nor the government, nor I was capable of providing that support. When the first phase of the Myriad event occurred, Dr. Danvers played a key role in saving Supergirl's life, which in turn made it possible for Supergirl to save the world. Dr. Danvers' levelheadedness, clear thinking, and courage in those events made an impression on the Director. After an investigation, he brought her on board, not only to provide the necessary support to Supergirl but also as a consultant on xenobiology since her experience with Supergirl makes her one of the few resources we have in that field."

"Did you have anything to do with the former Director's decision?" a Senator asked.

"I did not. It came as a complete surprise."

"Why did the former Director believe that you were not capable of providing the needed support?" another Senator asked.

"Since Supergirl knew I worked for the DEO," Alex replied, "she might see any support I might offer in certain situations as less than unbiased. The former Director recognized that Supergirl needed a supporter whose support for her would be uncompromised and uncompromising."

A third Senator spoke up, "Could you describe your mother's role in the Myriad event in more detail?"

"Mr. Chairman, if I may, I would prefer not to answer that question on the grounds that I was non conscious for most of what happened. I believe that the former Director, who is present and was an eyewitness, should explain what happened."

"So noted, Director," replied the Chairman. "Going back to the meeting your mother set up, would you agree with her stated rationale for doing that?"

"If by rationale you mean demonstrating that there are many benefits to the government and Supergirl working together, then yes, I would agree," Alex replied, "The Myriad incident is only one of many situations we have encountered where the value of having Supergirl as a willing volunteer in support of law enforcement has been more than amply proven."

"There were other incidents where Supergirl has worked with law enforcement? Please tell us about them," asked Senator Crane.

"Certainly: now that Fort Rozz situation has been declassified, I can tell you that Supergirl helped the DEO in several instances of conflict with that group of criminal Kryptonians. Everyone in National City knows the parts she played in helping stop Cadmus and the Daxamite invasion, not to mention the matter of Reign last year. In these matters, she has often worked with the NCPD's Science Division, which explains why they think so highly of her. Not to mention the many routine criminal activities that Supergirl has either stopped herself or has helped the NCPD's Patrol Division put a stop to."

"As you know, Director Danvers, our committees were briefed on Fort Rozz, Cadmus, the Daxamite invasion and the Reign issue as they occurred so we are familiar with the details, but they should also be included in the record today. Would you please recount the declassified or publicly known specifics of how Supergirl helped out in each case?" Senator Crane continued.

After Alex replied, a Congressman asked the next question, "Did the President know the full extent of Supergirl's role in these events when he made his decision to forbid her to work with federal agencies unless she made her identity public?"

"It's possible that he may not have had full information on these matters at the time he made his decision." Alex replied, "As you know, while your committees received the closed-session briefings on these matters as they occurred, the President, as the then Vice-President, did not share in those briefings. And, when I asked the former Director if the President had been present for the White House briefings for the four major incidents just mentioned, I learned that he had unfortunately missed all of them due to being out of town on diplomatic missions. Owing to the unusual circumstances surrounding his elevation, we have had no opportunity to brief him on DEO matters since his accession, which is one of the reasons why we had requested that he visit us on his recent trip to National City."

"Did you brief the President on these points when he visited the DEO?" Senator Crane returned to the questioning. 

"No, ma'am. Before I could do that, Supergirl arrived at the DEO. When she did, the President immediately let Supergirl know she had a choice to make. As you know, she chose to maintain her anonymity and left the DEO."

"Did you try to brief him after she left?"

"Unfortunately, I had no opportunity to do that; the President had to cut his short his visit and left soon after Supergirl did. I did tell him that I would be sending him an important file on the secure email system that had relevant information on Supergirl's relationship with the Department, and he said he would watch for it. In fact, I was doing a final review of that file, when I learned of Dr. Danvers' proposed meeting. When Dr. Danvers told me of her intended goal for that meeting, it seemed helpful to have others reinforce the point that Supergirl is too valuable a resource to throw away simply because Ben Lockwood had tried to muddy the waters around his actions after his arrest."

"That raises an important question, Director Danvers," Senator Crane continued, "Just how valuable an asset is Supergirl? Are Supergirl and Superman essential to the national defense?"

"We don't know, Senator, whether they are essential or not." Alex replied, "We can cope with all known threats unaided if we have to. That includes Kryptonians and the Daxamites (and the Daxamites can only return if they figure out how to make themselves immune to particulate lead). Even though we have every reason to think that Reign was a one-off, we can now deal with a recurrence of that problem without Supergirl's help. So, while Kryptonian assistance is not essential with regard to coping with any known threat, Kryptonian availability does give us some additional tactical flexibility and the potential for quicker response times while possibly minimizing casualties both for known and new threats."

Another voice spoke up, "You said you learned of your mother's ambush "when she did it." Did you just happen to watch _This Evening _that night?" asked an anti-alien Congressman sarcastically.

Once again, the two CatCo journalists exchanged worried glances. They had suspected that there would be a hidden agenda in this meeting: now they knew it. But Alex was unperturbed.

"No. When we met for dinner, Dr. Danvers gave me a sealed envelope and told me to open it at eight o'clock that evening, which I did. I have her note here, and Colonel Lane will enter it into the record and give copies to each of you."

There was silence as the notes were distributed, and the committee members read them.

"And after reading this, you still did nothing?" the now purple-faced Congressman asked.

"By the time I read that note, Congressman, the interview had started, which meant that I had no way to alert the President, short of calling the White House Signals Office and having them require the Secret Service to break into the interview. As you know, it is on public record that operational agencies such as the DEO may do that only for CRITIC class events, of which this was not one. And even though a public presentation of the positive case for the government working with Supergirl was more flamboyant than Dr. Danvers' normal style, you will see that her note does nothing to suggest that the discussion would deal with anything other than the Myriad events. And when the first few minutes of the interview reinforced that impression, I concluded that the public nature of the interview was Cat Grant's price for brokering the meeting."

At the press table, Cat Grant had a broad grin on her face as another Congressman spoke up. "Did you send that file your mother mentioned to the President that evening, Director Danvers?"

"Yes, I did, with copies to the Gang of Eight and the rest of the Senate Intelligence Committee."

The Chairman looked around at his colleagues, who nodded. He then moved the discussion to the next topic. "And what can you tell us about General Astra In-Ze, Director Danvers?"

"The first item I can tell you is that Chair Zor-El was correct in stating that the General was killed in a firefight with US agents. I was on the team that night. In the interest of saving time, Colonel Lane can show a video from one of the agents' chest cameras, and after that, I can answer questions if the committee would like more details."

"Is that why you asked for projection equipment to be available?" the Chair asked.

Alex nodded, "It's one of the reasons."

The Chair nodded, the room lights darkened, and the recording began. There were gasps as people recognized Astra as the twin of Alura and then other gasps as she immobilized an agent and was about to kill him. Finally, the room went silent as Astra tensed, gasped, let go of her captive and fell, revealing a bleak faced Alex Danvers standing behind her before the camera turned to reveal the sword hilt against the fallen Kryptonian's back.

As the lights went up, the Chair asked his next question, "Was there an after-action assessment?"

"Yes," Alex replied, "there was. Colonel Lane has copies." And once again, Lucy handed out a pile of documents.

"They concluded that your use of lethal force in this instance was justified," observed Senator Crane, who had skipped to the Findings page at the end.

"Yes," Alex replied.

"Does Supergirl know that you killed her aunt?" the Senator asked.

"She does. While she deeply grieves her loss of her aunt on a personal level, she agrees with the after-action assessment that lethal force was necessary in this instance."

"And how did the killing of her aunt affect your personal relationship?" Senator Crane continued.

"The incident has had no significant consequences for our relationship. But I should note something that is far more important to the country: the events of the last three years have conclusively demonstrated that the loss of her aunt did not cause Supergirl to waver by one iota from the responsibility she felt to put her powers at the service of those who need them, both in this country and in the wider world."

"'Felt' is past tense, Director Danvers. Has your sister's attitude changed recently?"

"Not exactly," Alex replied, "She has always reached out to help those who needed her assistance. While she is still concerned for people in trouble, her dismissal from serving with the government, combined with the potential availability of others equally gifted and able to help, has opened the door for her to consider other opportunities. In addition to the opportunities that Dr. Danvers alluded to in her interview with Cat Grant that night, she has been offered two additional jobs since she arrived on Argo. But as of last night, Supergirl has made no decisions about what she will do next: she's too busy enjoying a well-earned vacation and catching up with her childhood friends."

"What are those new offers?"

"She's been asked to write a column for one of Argo's media companies, and she's also been offered the post of CatCo's Argo correspondent."

Cat Grant's smile did not change as several congressmen, and a few Senators looked daggers at her. The others gazed at her with speculation in their eyes.

In the silence, the Chair looked around, and again the Congressmen and Senators nodded.

"What can you tell us about Fort Rozz?"

"It is best to describe the DEO's dealing with that situation in chronological sequence." Alex began, "When Fort Rozz initially landed, long before I was recruited, the after-action report tells us that its inmates temporarily abandoned it before our contact team arrived due to a severe case of "cabin fever." With the help of Superman, who had been asked to join the contact team, they were able to access the ship's computers and copy its data files, including the prisoner list. According to those files, Fort Rozz was Krypton's maximum-security prison. It held over 200 prisoners from various planets at the time of its arrival here, including General Astra and the members of her team who had been convicted of terrorism and sentenced to Fort Rozz by Chief Judicator Alura Zor-El."

"And how many of those prisoners are presently at large on earth?"

"We don't know. We do know that some have been captured and are presently serving out the duration of their sentences. We know that US agents have killed several others, including General Astra and her husband. What we do not know is how many remain in hiding today. We also know that the Kryptonian leader, Non, implied that some of this latter group had returned to Fort Rozz before the Myriad events. Some or all of these may have been carried into space by Supergirl, who had no time to fully investigate the Fort's then-current occupancy before saving us all."

"Ah, yes, by allegedly throwing Fort Rozz into space." It was the anti-alien Congressman again. "Do you have any evidence for this preposterous story other than the statements of Max Lord and your mother?"

"Since she knew that no human being could survive within fifty miles of the site due to the growing intensity of the Myriad wave, Supergirl took an alien friend with her to help her in that fight. He was equipped with a chest camera, and we have that recording. It has been split-screened with the camera from the DEO operations center taken at the same time. May Colonel Lane play the video for you?"

The committee members nodded, and the Chair said, "Go ahead." The video played showing Supergirl fighting Non while at the DEO the "Time to Termination" monitor moved ominously close to zero and then increased as Supergirl lifted Fort Rozz up, up, and away and the fort vanished from sight.

The Chairman looked around as silence fell. Then he spoke again. "The next questions concern the spacecraft that Max Lord said that you used to rescue Supergirl that day. Was he telling the truth about your actions in connection with that spacecraft?"

"Yes."

"You flew it into space and retrieved Supergirl?"

"Yes."

"Can you offer any additional proof besides your statement and that of Mr. Lord?"

"Since all matters related to this spaceship have been declassified, Colonel Lane has a video from DEO files showing the takeoff and return if the committee would like to see it. May the Colonel proceed?"

"Yes."

The video was shown. Once again, the Chair asked his next question as the lights came up.

"Director Danvers, how did you come to be acquainted with that spacecraft and why you were able to fly it?"

"That spacecraft was stored in a facility to which I was assigned shortly after being recruited to the DEO. When I asked about it, I was told something that made me think it might be the ship my sister had used to come to earth. So, on a couple of night shift breaks, I investigated the ship and established that it was of Kryptonian origin. Because my sister had taught me the Kryptonese language and some historico-cultural and family matters, I was able to gain access to the ship's cockpit, something that our people had not been able to do. Once I had access to the cockpit, I could access to the ship's training program, but I could neither extend my access to the piloting controls nor admit anyone else to simulator access. It was at that point that I reported my progress to the former Director, who ordered me to continue to investigate the ship.

"Since I'm a licensed pilot, I used the simulator program to train on the ship while I continued my investigation. Later, with Supergirl's help, I was able to gain access to the ship's flight controls. And while all matters connected with this spacecraft have been declassified, I have reason to believe that access details to the piloting program should not be discussed publicly at this time. My reports on the ship in the DEO files include those details and they can be made available later for the committees for study in closed session if the committees believe that to be necessary."

"And the reason for your view is?" a Senator asked.

"We know that there are presently at least one and possibly two or even more Kryptonian spacecraft of the same type on earth, and those who used them to get here have no current interest in them. We do not, however, know where all of those ships are. If any of them are discovered by unauthorized persons, attempting to use the access details could put themselves and their neighbors at serious risk."

Another Senator spoke, "Why do you say that? And why couldn't you extend your access to teach anyone else how to fly the ship?"

"It is best to answer by taking your second question first," Alex replied, "Owing to the design of the ship's computer's authorization system, I was not able to program the ship to offer simulator and flight control access to anyone beyond myself. Nor, as it turned out, could my sister do so. It was only by identifying me as her sister that Supergirl was able to get me access to the flight controls. And every indication we had was that if we had tried to hack the system to improve our access to full control rather than piloting control, we would have triggered a self-defense system that was designed to blow the ship up. When we reached this point, I reported my findings to the then-Director, and he instructed me to stop trying to gain full access to the ship's systems and to document my findings in the files I previously mentioned."

"I think your reasons that further discussion of these matters should be in closed session are convincing, Director Danvers," said the Chair.

"Thank you."

"But how could the ship take off in unpiloted flight on the day of the interview?" Senator Crane asked.

"The ship can be flown remotely, and it has sensors that can pick up and lock on to Supergirl, even if she's on the other side of a planet," Alex replied, "When Supergirl began to work with the DEO, she asked a staffer to help her set up a remote access to the site roof controls so that she could summon the ship in an emergency without damaging the facility."

What kind of emergency would require that spaceship to have remote flight capability?" another Senator asked

"That spaceship is an interstellar courier model normally used by Kryptonian diplomats, diplomatic messengers, and intelligence agents. As you may surmise, there are situations where remote flight and pilot tracking capabilities would be highly useful in the latter context, so the capability was built in to address those needs. The ship is linked to a personal communications implant that Kryptonians received on their eleventh birthday."

"And you didn't shut this remote-control ship capability down when Supergirl resigned?" 

Alex was unruffled, "I never knew that the capability existed before Supergirl utilized it to get the ship to meet her the day she left for Argo. My sister had never mentioned her implant before or after she began to volunteer with the DEO. The ship's remote-control functionality was not described in the simulator program, nor was it mentioned in the piloting documentation that was available to me once I had received piloting access."

"Do you have any idea why she did not tell you about it?"

"I asked her about this when we met on Argo. Her answer was this: having learned how the United States Government had forced my father to go to work for them in exchange for her continued freedom, my sister did not fully trust the government. She recognized that a government that came after her once could easily come after her again at any moment. And she wanted to be able to leave earth if the government's actions were as unjust in any later attempt to take her as they were in the former."

"But why didn't you deactivate the roof opening circuit when the President forbade Supergirl from working with the DEO," the sarcastic Congressman asked.

"I didn't know about it: It was set up before I became Director and even the former Director did not know that this had been done. Supergirl and the staffer who helped her set it up were the only ones who knew about it."

"And who is that staffer?" The Congressman asked.

"He is someone presently on a long-term assignment outside the country."

"We'll need his name to summon him to confirm this part of your story, Director," Now the man's voice was almost gleeful. He thought he had Alex on the run.

"I'm afraid that contacting him won't be possible, Congressman. The nature of his assignment is such that we are not able to communicate with him, and we will not be able to do so for the foreseeable future."

"Please explain that statement, Director Danvers."

"I can't do that here and now. Doing so would involve addressing matters that are not on the public record and the President has only waived executive privilege on declassified matters."

The Congressman's face went white, and his voice hardened. "This is a Congressional inquiry, Director. The American people have the right to know. If you do not answer, you will be charged with contempt of Congress."

"You will have to litigate the question of whether executive privilege covers this specific question before you can charge the Director," the quiet voice of Eliza Danvers interjected, "And before you go any further, Congressman Parsons, I noticed earlier that you did not read the last three pages in the information package that Colonel Lane gave you concerning my background. I am speaking the truth when I tell you that it would be very much in your best interest to read those pages right now."

The Congressman glared at her as she stood relaxed, yet implacable, in the well of the room. Then he looked at the Chairman, who nodded, firmly. Then he opened his folder and read the last three pages. It didn't take long. Finally, he looked at Eliza Danvers for a long moment with blazing eyes before he said, "I withdraw my question."

The Chair spoke quickly, to dispel the rising buzz of comment, "We have one last area of concern. You are the Director of the agency charged with managing criminal situations that are beyond the scope of our normal police agencies. One of those situations is Supergirl. If your sister goes rogue again, wouldn't this place you in a conflict of interest?"

"Hypothetically yes, practically no. Supergirl has repeatedly told me that if such a situation were to recur, she would expect me to do what I did when she went rogue after she was exposed to Mr. Lord's drug."

"And what did you do, Director?"

"I prioritized restraining her and maintaining public safety. Once again, Colonel Lane has a video to show you. You may have seen a similar video when CatCo TV broadcast what happened that night, but what you are about to see is another cameraman's unedited footage.

The lights dimmed, and the video played, and the viewers in the room saw Supergirl fighting with a special forces team. She had just broken the arm of an agent whose face could not be seen when a green alien engaged her for a few moments until a shot rang out, and she fell. But this time, unlike the broadcast, the focus did not stay on Supergirl throughout: something had caused this cameraman to turn his camera away a second before the shot, and in doing so he caught the shooter in the act of firing, despite one arm hanging limply at her side. The shooter was Alex Danvers.

As the lights came up, Alex continued her answer, "As you might surmise, that was a dart filled with liquid Kryptonite that I fired and, as you saw, it was effective. These darts are more effective than Kryptonite tipped bullets because every hit will instantly incapacitate a Kryptonian. In contrast, a Kryponite covered bullet must hit a vital area to be effective. I believe this video demonstrates that I can be trusted to carry out my responsibilities appropriately where Supergirl is concerned."

"So noted, Director Danvers. Thank you very much. Are there any further questions?" The stunned committee members shook their heads.

"Then you may step down for a few moments, Director Danvers. Thank you for your testimony, and please remain present as I believe we will need we need to recall you for a short time after our next witness is done." He paused, "We shall adjourn for a fifteen-minute break, and after we reconvene, I believe our next witness should be Mr. Hank Henshaw, the former Director of the DEO who is also present." He rapped his gavel, "Meeting is adjourned."

The committee members nodded, and Alex, Eliza and Lucy moved to sit next to Cat Grant at the press table as several people moved out in search of restrooms.

"What was all that Kabuki about?" James asked, "They never even laid a glove on you, Alex."

Cat grinned, "The President has a huge political problem. As you know, both parties are split on the question of any tolerance for interstellar aliens, and he's one of the intolerant minority of his party. But after he fired Supergirl, he can't afford to be seen as attacking Alex or Eliza. That's why he negotiated the hearing set up in a way that let the majority-anti-alien other side Chair of the House committee lead the hearing and ask the hard questions. He'd originally planned to do this in closed session, and twist and leak Alex's testimony to make her look bad, but Senator Crane outfoxed him. If the President hadn't agreed to open session hearings and declassification of those topics, the Senator told him that she would publicly announce how the President didn't listen to Alex when she tried to stop him from firing Supergirl. And that's why he had to declassify and go open session. And when Congressman Parsons tried to get Alex to reveal classified information, Eliza here threatened to tell all she knows about something that he didn't like." She turned to Eliza, "Were those three pages, possibly, your pardon from President Donaldson and a list of the secrets you could reveal? And did Congressman Parsons, perchance, play a major part in setting up the DEO? If so, making that fact public now would kill his career, since his district is so highly anti-alien these days."

Eliza smiled, but her smile did not reach her eyes.

"So, where does that leave us?" James asked.

"It means that all the anti-alien crowd can do will be to establish that Alex Danvers is a brilliant and committed DEO Director who follows policy perfectly," Cat continued, "The rest of the hearing won't change that."

As usual, what followed in the rest of the hearing proved Cat Grant to be correct. As the hearing broke up, Alex hugged her mother, put her hand in a pocket, stepped into a blue-white circle and vanished.

"Off to get your luggage?" Cat asked as she and Eliza moved quickly to the corridor while James remained for a word with Lucy.

"Yes, that's right." Eliza replied.

As they reached the corridor, they were stopped by a man carrying a briefcase, "Dr. Elizabeth Danvers?" he asked.

"Yes," Eliza replied.

"I'm Tom Price from the Secretary's office. You have something for me?"

"I do. May I see your credentials, please?"

The man nodded and handed her an identification billfold.

Eliza looked at it, handed it back, and then handed him a small folder. "Please convey my apologies to the Secretary for not getting here on the original schedule. As you may have heard, we couldn't leave Argo until this morning. Argo's medics wanted to make sure I hadn't come down with anything and it was only this morning that they were able to give me a clean bill of health."

"I'll tell the Secretary," Price said. He opened the folder, signed it and handed it back, "Dr. Danvers, you are now the duly accredited Honorary Consul of Argo to the government of the United States."

"Thank you," Eliza replied.

"Will it suit your convenience to meet with the Secretary and the President at the White House at 5 pm today for a meeting with a dinner to follow?"

"That will be fine." Eliza replied, "Should I come to the West Wing entrance?"

"No, the Secretary wants to send a car to pick you up. I notice you turned down the invitation to stay at Blair House. Where are you staying."

"Sending a car won't be necessary, Mr. Price." Cat Grant interjected, "Dr. Danvers and her daughter are my guests in the CatCo suite of the Hay-Adams hotel. It's an easy walk across Lafayette Square to the White House."

"Indeed, it is, Miss Grant. In that case just come to the North Gate," said the man from the State Department as he turned to Eliza, "I'll let the Secretary and the President know." With that, he excused himself and left. As the two women moved on, a reporter intercepted them.

"Dr. Danvers, I'm Chester Holt, ABC News. How can you act for Argo in this matter? Are you going to give up your American citizenship?

"There are three reasons I can act for Argo without giving up my American citizenship – something I'll never do. First, I am not Argo's Ambassador: I am serving as an Honorary Consul. Having a citizen of a host country serving as honorary consul for another country is a well- established diplomatic convention. This country presently has seventy-two American citizens acting as honorary consuls for other countries, and nobody raises an eyebrow at the practice. Second, and more important, as things stand now, it is a political impossibility for Argo's citizens to be present in even the smallest numbers in Washington before diplomatic relations are established. Yet Argo must have diplomatic representation here to establish those relations. That means an American must take on the role of contact, at least for now, and since Argo's decision-makers don't know many people here, they chose me as their best available option. Third, my instructions and negotiating targets do not threaten any of America's vital interests. In fact, what I am empowered to offer was designed to help certain of those interests. Unfortunately, I can't be more specific at the moment."

"But what about your declaring war on the President on national TV? Don't you think he might bear a grudge that might affect the negotiations?"

"I think it's fair to say that I distinguished between the President in his personal political capacity and the country as a whole when I pointed out that he had started a war with my family and me. But by accepting my nomination, President Baker has made it clear that he recognizes the difference between one individual calling him out on a bad decision in one area, and engaging in what should be an easy win-win negotiation with that individual in areas where the national interests of the United States and Argo aren't significantly different."

"And how will you holding a grudge against the President affect the negotiations?"

"I was invited to suggest what Argo's proposals should be and Chair Zor-El and the council have authorized me to say that they are grateful for my advice and have largely followed it. So, I'll just say this: ask me that question after Argo's position is made public if you still think you need an answer. Once you know what's on the table, I'll be very surprised if you don't agree that those proposals will be of real and significant benefit to this country. And now, if you'll excuse us, we need to have lunch, and I have a meeting to prepare for."

"Very smooth, Eliza, very smooth," Cat commented as they left the building. "And an equally smooth move by Chair Zor-El. Not only does it solve her problem, it also eliminates some potentially nasty jams for you. For one thing, if Baker tries to arrest Alex now, he'll create earth's first interstellar diplomatic incident. Did Alura come up with the idea on her own, or did somebody whisper it into her ear?"

Eliza smiled again. This time, the smile did reach her eyes.

"A perfectly diplomatic response, just like your answers to Holt," sniffed Cat, "Keep that up, Eliza, and you'll be getting job offers from the State Department."

"Do you really think so?" Eliza asked.

The hopeful and saccharine tone of Eliza 's voice prompted one of the Queen of all Media's best glares. But when she saw Eliza's gleaming eyes and preternaturally innocent expression, Cat was glad that her son was away at university. Having Carter learn yet another way to pull her leg was something she definitely didn't need.


	7. It's Challenging to Negotiate With Her

_Later that afternoon_

There are so many VIP processions driving around the city – motorcycle pairs at head and tail plus three to five cars in the middle – that they are usually invisible to the residents, particularly when they are only moving a few blocks. Thanks to a news flash, however, a small crowd had gathered to watch this procession leave the hotel, pick up its escorts, turn east, north, and west around the block, before turning south and then back east on the same busy one-way street it had started from. But before it reached its starting point, the well-known armored limousine in the middle of the line turned right into a narrow lane that leads to the entrance of a low white building while the motorcycles and the lead and the chase cars continued straight ahead.

There were six marines waiting as the limo stopped, three on either side of the red carpet. As the car came to a stop, the nearest marine reached to open the door, and a motherly looking blond woman in an elegant blue outfit emerged, nodded her thanks to the marine, and moved to the north entrance of the West Wing

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Four men and two women rose as Eliza Danvers entered the Oval Office: President Baker, the Attorney General the Secretaries of State, Defense, Commerce and Agriculture. Cameras clicked as Eliza was introduced and shook hands with them all.

"Dr. Danvers," the President said, "Thank you for rearranging your schedule on very short notice. Unfortunately, that dam failure means I must leave for California tonight. And thanks also for putting our personal disagreement into the proper context for the news people. And most important of all, thank you for not mentioning any classified matters in the hearing, particularly when Congressman Parsons tried to get into that area."

"You're welcome, Mr. President"

"And I'm sorry we couldn't let you walk across Lafayette Park. But with all the anti-alien sentiment out there right now, the Honorary Consul of Argo is someone we can't risk anything happening to."

"Don't worry about it," Eliza replied, "I should have thought of that myself, but as the Czech writer Vaclav Havel once said about a similar situation, 'Politics is not my day job.'"

"True enough," said the Secretary of State, "but you've certainly started off on the right foot."

"Thank you."

"But since time waits for none of us, I think we'd best see what we can come up with. Let's sit down," President Baker suggested. He and his team took seats on one couch with chairs at each end, leaving Eliza alone on the other. She sat, totally unperturbed.

"Before I speak officially as Argo's Honorary Consul, I need to say something personally as Eliza Danvers, American," Eliza began, "I told Chair Zor-El and the High Council that the only way I would take this job was if I was convinced that what they were offering was truly beneficial to both parties. And it is only because I believe their negotiating posture is a win-win opportunity that I accepted the commission."

She looked around, and everyone nodded.

"With that said and putting my official hat on, I'd like to give you the context in which Argo's high council sees the situation and we can then discuss any differences in viewpoints before we come to the details." Again, she looked around, and again the others nodded.

"First, the High Council, on behalf of the people of Argo, thanks the United States for offering to initiate diplomatic and trade relationships between the two polities. The council unanimously believes that such a relationship will be mutually beneficial. Krypton had several thousand years of experience engaging in such relationships across interstellar distances and, as Chair Zor-El said in her reply to your original message, the principles that governed Krypton's interstellar relationships were close enough to the Vienna Conventions that Argo is happy to use those conventions as the basis of its relationships with governments here.

Second, the High Council notes that Argo will inevitably be invited by other Earth polities to establish diplomatic and trade relationships and Argo will have to accept such invitations if only to secure international patent protection for any technologies shared with the USA. But rest assured that Argo will follow Krypton's longstanding policy of interstellar neutrality and therefore will not form military alliances with any nation. Despite a basic policy of neutrality, however, Argo is committed to giving the United States certain trade preferences for a ten-year period. This latter stance is Argo's "Thank you" for the country's unwitting support as the Danvers family raised Kara Zor-El in a way that met Kryptonian as well as American standards."

"Third, Cat Grant has sent the council a copy of the WTO rules, and the council notes that Argo fits all the conditions for Most Favored Nation status vis a vis the US and would prefer to trade on that basis. Complete documentation supporting the council's view will be delivered to State's liaison team on Argo within the next day or so."

"And finally, neither Argo nor the US will fail to survive if no deal is reached. Therefore, no deal will happen if it is not beneficial for both sides. Does anyone see any problems with any part of this perspective?"

The others present shook their heads.

"Then since the United States suggested setting up this relationship, you probably have some ideas for what you would like to see in an agreement," Eliza concluded.

"Thank you for a very cogent presentation of how Argo sees the background, Dr. Danvers," said the Secretary of State, "For the record, we fully agree on the context as you have described it." As Eliza nodded, he continued, "As for trade possibilities, there are key four items we'd like to discuss as the foundation for the relationship. First, our liaison team has reported that Argo has cold fusion technology. That is something we would very much like to have. Second, you have interstellar travel. That too is something we would like. Third, we'd like to have your knowledge learning systems. And finally, we want to develop a politically palatable way to get some additional Kryptonians to come here as police auxiliaries.

"The cold fusion and educational technologies will be no problem," replied Eliza, "We'd be happy to license them to American companies for a fair price once we secure international patents on them."

"Would you give the USA exclusive rights to those technologies and let us license them to other countries for a fee?" asked the Secretary.

"That wouldn't be the Council's preference," Eliza replied, "Historically Krypton, like Switzerland, was a state that operated from a policy of neutrality. Argo wants to continue in that tradition. Experience has shown the High Council that if they trade with any polity on a multi-polity planet, they must be open to trading with all of them. When Krypton tried to engage in a "most favored nation approach" as a basic policy, what usually followed was a series of unfortunate consequences for both partners. As noted, the Council does want to give this country certain time-limited trade preferences for a specific reason but they are not inclined to go beyond their initial offer. And regarding cold fusion, Argo understands that the worldwide adoption of cold fusion technology would quickly solve some serious pollution problems and climate change issues that are hurting the planet while lowering industrial and residential power costs by 50%, and the biggest of these problems arise outside the United States. If Argo works directly with countries such as China, Russia, and India as well as the US to set up this technology, a lot of the world's pollution hot spots will be cleared up faster. And while that change will benefit those other countries directly, it will benefit the USA indirectly as well."

"That's interesting. What about interstellar travel?" asked the Secretary of Defense.

"Argo is willing in principle to share that technology, but as a practical matter, there's no point in sharing it until you have a continent-wide power network up and running. I'm not competent to discuss the technical details, but if you'd like to send a team of your most advanced electrical and mechanical engineers to Argo, they will be able to report on the challenges that will be involved. In the meantime, the Council estimates that it will take between five and ten years for you to build the power net you'll need. During that period Argo proposes to do its American and worldwide trading deliveries and contract signings on a FOB at a US port basis. That way, instead of licensing fees, you'll get the tax revenues on the transactions and you won't need to pay the interstellar transportation costs." Eliza carefully did not mention a possible real objective hidden in the American request: that of controlling the worldwide diffusion of Kryptonian technology.

Does Argo have any other suggestions for trade?" the Secretary of Commerce asked.

"Yes," Eliza replied, "When the planets in Krypton's solar system were spun off from Rao their sun, the mineralization distribution on Krypton differed quite a bit from what happened here. Argo has huge quantities of all the seventeen heavy rare earth minerals that US industry needs for the foreseeable future. Would you be interested in purchasing anything up to 80,000 metric tons annually for up to twenty years, at ten percent below the CME market price on a sole-customer wholesale contract, delivery and settlement to take place at mutually determined locations within the USA?"

The President and the Secretaries of Defense and Commerce took deep breaths in unison. This was an unexpected surprise that opened the door to tremendous possibilities.

Rare earth minerals were essential for computer memory, DVDs, rechargeable batteries, cell phones, catalytic converters, magnets, fluorescent lighting and much more. They were a critical item in the national defence stockpile, but the US only produced 15,000 metric tons a year and could only use half of that for defence uses because the other half was needed for civilian use. The shortage was a major bottleneck in defence planning. And it didn't help that China could produce five times what the US could and charged extremely high export prices. Now Eliza Danvers had calmly told them they could have all they needed and more – for both the civilian and military markets, at a discount, together with having an additional supply available to be sold elsewhere. And Argo's proposal to trade FOB at US ports meant that the United States would gain two billion-dollar revenue streams, one from taxing domestic buys and the other from doing the same to foreign purchases.

"That's certainly an effective way of getting our attention," the Secretary of Commerce was the first to find her voice, "But did I hear you say that you wanted delivery and settlement to take place here?"

"Yes," Eliza Danvers replied.

"Then even after taxes, your trading company will have a balance sheet with tens of billions of dollars in annual revenues. What will you do with all that money? You can't repatriate it to Argo."

"No, but Argo can use it to finance its representation here and to trade for other desirables such as purchasing a substantial proportion of the US annual food reserve for at least the next seven to twenty years."

A chuckle turned all eyes to the grinning Secretary of Agriculture as he said, "Now I know why you wanted me here. Dr. Danvers. I think we might be able to work something out. But settlement and delivery will have to be here also."

"That's no problem."

"Then what would your initial purchases look like? How many people do you have?"

Eliza told him, and he nodded, "Based on our production figures for the last five years, we should be able to supply all those items with no trouble at all."

"We thought so. And finally, additional Kryptonians are easy," Eliza concluded, "Director Danvers has played a little hooky on her medical leave. She has spent enough time with Argo's police department and special teams to identify where they are like ours, where they differ, and what training they'll need. She passed her report on the matter to Acting Director Lane earlier today, and it should be in your email queue by now, Mr. President. But the bottom line is this: Argo could have fifty police officers, trained in DEO rules of engagement, on-planet, and patrolling within two weeks with as many as 150 more able to follow within a few months. The High Council also understands that you will need to keep the radical anti-alien protests to a reasonable level, so it would be your option to limit the Argo team's rules of engagement to supporting the DEO, or whether you would want them to work with local police departments as well."

"That might be very useful," commented the Attorney General, "Particularly if Superman and Supergirl come with them. When will they be returning to Earth?"

"Superman tells me that he would prefer to keep to his original schedule, which means he'll be back in about six months. He's getting to know his parents and his heritage in a way we'd all thought was impossible, and he's taking his time to do so. My daughter, however, faces a more complex situation."

"What situation is that?" the Secretary of State asked.

"I'll need President Baker's authorization to answer that specific question since I don't know whether all of you are cleared for classified information regarding Supergirl and the DEO."

"The revelation of how you made the deal with former President Donaldson is public knowledge," the Attorney General replied, "And he will be facing charges for an unauthorized release of classified information."

"I'm glad you told me that," Eliza said. "Has former President Donaldson provided you with the full text of our agreement?"

The AG shook her head. "No. It wasn't necessary for us to see that. We know what happened."

"I'm afraid your statement is incorrect," replied Eliza, "If you had seen the full text, you would have known that charging the former President would be inadvisable because one of the minor terms of our agreement was that it would not be classified. As the then-sitting President, President Donaldson had every legal right to make that determination. I also know that former President Marsden and her successor did nothing to change the agreement's classification status."

The AG and the President both winced: they knew that any change in the agreement's security status would have required Eliza Danvers to sign the legally required classification change notification. Eliza carefully didn't notice.

"Thank you for letting us know that detail," said the AG.

"You're welcome," said Eliza, "But to return to my daughter's situation: speaking hypothetically, might it be possible that other factors than the now-public incident that prompted our deal are pertinent?"

The President caught the unspoken message, "Secretaries Grantham and Billingsley, please wait outside for a few moments." The Secretaries of Commerce and Agriculture rose and left. As they left the President continued, "Dr. Danvers, you may continue on my authorization. For the record, the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Defense are now authorized for any compartment containing classified information at whatever level that bears on Supergirl's situation."

"Personally, I'd be happy to accept your statement as given, but since I am also Argo's Honorary Consul, it might be best if I were to have it in writing."

President Baker raised an eyebrow.

"To avoid any possible future complications," Eliza suggested.

The President nodded, walked to his desk, wrote a few words on a scratch pad, tore the page off and handed it to Eliza. "Will that do?"

"Yes, Mr. President, and thank you," Eliza replied, as she put the note into her purse, "To continue: any discussion of a future role for Supergirl on Earth must start with Kara Zor-El Danvers, not Supergirl. The distinction is important. Supergirl is a job description and a uniform. Kara is the person at the heart of the situation."

She paused for emphasis and the three men and one woman nodded.

"As you know, Kara was about thirteen when she left Krypton," Eliza began, "By the time my husband was forced to volunteer for the DEO, we had already learned something of Krypton's political environment as Kara had known it. Thanks to their educational technologies, she had already been trained in Kryptonian history, military history, and politics to the level of a US university senior majoring in Political Science with a military history minor."

"In political terms, Krypton was an oligarchy, but it was a remarkably successful one. Today's closest earth parallel is probably Singapore, which for the last fifty years has been ruled by a meritocratic elite that has carefully subordinated their interests to those of the populace. Because of that stance, that elite has remained in office for all those years without losing a single election. Like the Singaporeans, the elite families of Krypton kept tight links with the peoples they served and they did not allow their personal or relational short-term interests to get in the way of the interests of the Kryptonian people. And so they have remained a trusted and respected elite – for over four thousand years. But as you know, that's not the norm for earth. The vast majority of our oligarchies have ended in civil war or great political turmoil, mostly within a few decades."

"Within this context, we must also consider the House of El, Kara's clan. Although its members usually have not sought political office directly, their eminence in the fields of science, the law, and the military meant that they usually were in key positions in times of crisis. Over the past forty centuries, members of that house have won great credit by exemplifying the virtues of responsible service. As a result, they gained an extraordinary measure of trust from the Kryptonian people and that trust has often propelled them into high office, as it did with Kara's mother. Growing up as a daughter of this house, Kara knew from her earliest days that she would face the challenge of meeting those high expectations, and that challenge is something that she was specifically trained for, even as a child. While on Krypton, she accepted that state of affairs as inevitable, but when she got here, those expectations became irrelevant to her new life. Here, she could choose her own life and be who she wanted to be. And the person she wanted to be was first Cat Grant's assistant, and second a responsible and competent journalist. But she also felt an increasing desire to do something else in addition to the life she had chosen."

"By the time I negotiated with President Donaldson, I knew that Kara would want to follow in her cousin's footsteps in using her powers to help people. And I also knew, from watching Superman, that there was only one way she could use her powers that would be acceptable to the public at large: Superman's way; that of helping the police and the government as a volunteer operating within the law. As you all know, had Kara tried any other approach, she would have been hunted down as a criminal by the DEO."

"So, as I told President Donaldson, I raised Kara in the tradition of the finest American ideals of politics and citizenship. I saw to it that she gained an understanding of the background to the Revolution, the Declaration, the Constitution, what those documents meant to the Founders, and the reasons why all levels of government were, and still are, limited in their powers. I taught her about the high ideals of our founders and the uneasy compromises they and their successors have sometimes had to make in order to progress toward those goals."

"As you might imagine, the American view of government appeared very strange at first to someone with Kara's background where the Kryptonian oligarchy never lost connections with the full range of its people. But once I showed Kara that human governments have consistently lost touch with their people, and why the American ideals remain valid despite the compromises, I could then go on to show her that those who leverage those ideals to achieve their purposes have consistently won out over the compromisers in the long term. Once she saw that she realized that building on our ideals was why we have been able to survive even when our elites became disconnected from those outside their circles. And that's why she became so committed to the rule of law and to helping people within that framework."

"But since she came out as Supergirl, Kara has faced a number of unique challenges completely unsupported and the cumulative strain of those challenges has been immense. Unfortunately, several of these challenges directly involved the US government and its interactions with our family and herself personally. More important, those interactions showed the US Government saying one thing yet doing another when it comes to following what it says are its highest ideals.

The Attorney General caught the President's signal, "What happened?"

"Several things," Eliza replied, "First, you already know how we lost my husband and her adoptive father whom Kara had quickly grown to love: The day after I arrived on Argo, I learned a critical detail about that situation which I had not known. Her mother told me that Kara disobeyed Jeremiah when he told her not to listen to our meeting with those DEO agents the night he was forced to volunteer to work for the DEO. And because a mistake of hers was one of the factors that led to that meeting and put Jeremiah on the road to his death, Kara has blamed both herself and the US government equally for Jeremiah's death ever since."

"But I believe you recently learned that your husband may be alive," commented the President, "Doesn't that change the picture?"

"In the best of all possible worlds, it might. In the world as it is, it won't change anything in Kara's mind. For one thing, we knew that Jeremiah was dead for over twelve years. That certainty left a mark in all our hearts; not just Kara's. Moreover, during the Cadmus affair, we discovered that the US government agent who initially recruited him was a longstanding Cadmus double agent. And he was also the one who led my husband's kidnapping by Cadmus where he was effectively brainwashed. During short the time my husband was with us before disappearing again, he committed some crimes, and if he reappears, he will face charges. As far as Kara is concerned, the US government forced her earth father into that position, and the fact that it did so is the first strike against it."

"If you'll let us know the details of those charges, I can advise the pardon advisors at the Department of Justice to look into the matter," said the AG, "If what you say is correct, a pardon would possibly be appropriate."

"Thank you," replied Eliza, "Acting Director Lane is aware of the situation and you can ask her for the appropriate files. But I'm afraid that this is not the only problematic incident."

"Go on, please," asked the AG.

"The second strike is what happened after Kara rescued flight 237. By the way, her sister was on that flight, which is why Kara revealed her Kryptonian abilities and subsequently came out as Supergirl. But a couple of days later, she saw a large city fire, went to help, was shot out of the sky and rendered unconscious by a Kryptonite dart, was taken to the DEO as a prisoner where was told in no uncertain terms that any more assistance on her part was not wanted and would be dealt with severely. To that point, she had done nothing illegal or immoral either as Kara Danvers or as Supergirl, so she sees that incident as the second time the US government betrayed the founding American ideals and treated her as less than a citizen."

"But she ignored the warning," said the President.

"No, Mr. President, she obeyed it. Right up until the moment when the DEO found itself facing an alien threat it couldn't handle and they ordered her sister – someone who Kara knew was vehemently opposed to her acting as Supergirl – to demand that she help them. Even though Kara noticed the radical about-face on her sister's part and realized what was going on, she chose to help the DEO. And it's a good thing she did: if she hadn't, National City would now be the world's largest bomb crater. The file on that incident – the Vartox incident – is in the email Director Danvers sent you the night of the interview."

"And I was strike three," said the President.

"No, Mr. President, you were strike four," Eliza replied, "Or more properly strike five."

"What do you mean?"

"Strike three was the way the government treated General Astra In-Ze after Supergirl initially captured her before she was exchanged for the kidnapped DEO Director. A US army general who was then in temporary command of the DEO injected her with concentrated liquid kryptonite – in front of Supergirl. A few months later, Kara was similarly injected when she was captured by Cadmus, so she has firsthand experience of what her aunt experienced that day. Watching the torture of her beloved aunt had an undeniable impact. And what her aunt endured taught her once again that the US government did not regard it as necessary to treat aliens as sentient beings."

"I can see that. Who was the General in question?" asked the Secretary of Defense.

"I don't want to mention his name although you can easily find it. Since there was no law governing that situation on the books at the time or even now, you couldn't prosecute him for his actions, and I'm very happy to report that he later came to a better mind.

And what was strike four?" asked the Secretary of State.

"Strike four wasn't an attack on Supergirl, but it was the game-changer. Argo turned up in our sky."

"Why did that change things?" the AG wondered.

"Because that gave Kara an out: she was no longer trapped on Earth. She could leave for Argo at a moment's notice. And she also knew that she could arrange matters so that her sister and I could no longer be held hostage to ensure that she would comply with the government's wishes."

"Do you really think we'd do something like that, Dr. Danvers?" asked the AG softly.

"If I did, I wouldn't be here," came the cool reply, "But the question Kara was facing was not 'What can the government do at this moment?' but 'What could the government have done when Argo had not yet turned up?' Seeing her sister forced into begging for her to act as Supergirl taught her that her sister and I were hostages against her good behavior. So, she couldn't ignore the possibility that the government might move against us if she did something it didn't like. But with Argo in our sky, she knows it would be counterproductive if you tried to do something like that now. She also agrees with the High Council that the potential trade benefits are too good for either side to ignore. But to get back to your original question, these issues have had an impact and Kara needs to work through them before she returns. She's not quick at thinking through personal issues, she's going to need some months to do that, even though she has been wise enough to seek help. She has already had a couple of meetings with Argo's leading psychologist. And what she'll eventually decide to do will be up to her."

"While it would be great to get additional Kryptonians," interjected the Secretary of Defense, "the American people know and trust Superman and Supergirl, but they don't know members of the Argo Police Department. It would be far more difficult to win acceptance for deploying them if Superman and Supergirl aren't present to lead them. And unfortunately, like it or not, politics is the art of the possible."

"You've raised a good point," commented Eliza, "It's one that both the High Council and I thought would be raised, and the council has authorized me to speak to it personally before I present the Council's position. Speaking personally as Eliza Danvers, American and Kara's earth mother, I can tell you that if her participation is made a condition of any trade deal with Earth, Kara will refuse to return. Speaking as Argo's Honorary Consul I am authorized to tell you that the Council will not attempt to force the issue and will not pursue negotiations further if Kara's refusal is a deal-breaker for you."

"That seems a little extreme," commented the Secretary of State, "Why are they taking that view?"

"As I said earlier, Kara's new life on earth gave her the ability to freely choose who she wanted to be without being faced with any external expectations. On Krypton before the explosion, and to a much greater extent on Argo now, her life would have been a public life rather than a private one. Here, for the first time ever, Kara could just be herself, without carrying the political expectations of more than four thousand years of Kryptonian history on her shoulders and Kara regarded this new public anonymity of her life in this world as one of its greatest blessings. Even when she came out as Supergirl, Kara was not a law enforcement professional: she served as an anonymous volunteer. Living as Kara Danvers, she could help people as Supergirl without carrying the impossible expectations that we expect of Supergirl into her private life. Unfortunately, her service with the DEO was publicly rejected, and in a most unfortunate way. Do I need to explain why her anonymity would have been quickly lost following that rejection?"

"I think we can see what would have happened," said the Secretary of Defense, "Sooner or later someone would notice the lack of Supergirl/DEO cooperation in an alien case, particularly if it resulted in significant public harm. Questions would have been asked, and the answers to those questions would have triggered a nationwide hunt to find out Supergirl's identity. Am I right?"

"You are," said Eliza, as the President and the AG frowned at the Secretary, "Kara was a volunteer. She will not be a law enforcement professional on earth. And Krypton and Argo are like the US in one way, neither government can force a specific individual to do anything they do not want to do except for exceptional circumstances such as wars. More important, the psychologist I mentioned has already advised Kara and the High Coucil that she should not return to her Supergirl role prior to working out her issues. The stakes between the polities are too high and she would be under too much strain produced by her unresolved internal tensions."

"That is a problem," commented the Secretary of State

"Now if you feel that you really need a known Kryptonian in addition to the police team, I do have two alternative suggestions," Eliza continued.

"What are they, Dr. Danvers?" asked the Secretary of State.

"You have a contact team on Argo. Why not have them talk to Superman and see whether they can negotiate an agreement that brings him back earlier, perhaps on a part-time basis? Or, if the public has moved so strongly against Kryptonians in general that you feel you need Superman and Supergirl to lead them, you might want to reconsider whether you need the additional Kryptonians at all. As Director Danvers testified this morning, while Kryptonians are nice assets to have, they are not essential to the country's defence. And as it happens, both Kara and the High Council know that Director Danvers' statement is the truth of the matter."

"How does the High Council know that?" asked the AG.

"Because Kara told her mother of the fates of her sister and brother in law, the public details of the Daxamite invasion, and the details of the Reign issue as part of the background to getting the specific element, harun-el, that enabled us to deal with that individual.

"Then Supergirl shared classified material with unauthorized individuals. Twice," the AG pounced.

"Once again, that's inaccurate," said Eliza, "In the first place, once he learned of the circumstances, the then Director of the DEO recognized that Kara's sharing of the fates of Astra and Non In-Ze was justified by the overriding necessity to obtain the harun-el and he retroactively authorized her actions under the unanticipated circumstances clause in the classification rules. As for the latter incident, even before Kara left for Argo, the Director recognized that knowledge of the Reign situation was essential for the High Council to determine whether they could help us, and he authorized Supergirl to release that information." And Eliza knew as well as they did that the DEO Director had the right to make those determinations.

The four American politicians looked at each other. The two Secretaries and the AG nodded; the latter's reservations were obvious.

"Time presses, but I think that we have the beginnings of a deal here," said the President, "We'll want a day or two to think this over after I get back from California, but I don't see any major roadblocks, even though we'd love to have Superman back here and preferably Supergirl with him. That said, Dr. Danvers would you be happy with a communique saying that our discussion has been an exceptionally productive first meeting and that we are likely well on our way to an agreement that is a win for both sides?"

"Change the wording to 'we appear to be on our way to an agreement that is a win for both sides' and I think that's a fair description. And I like the fact that the communique is short."

"I've already learned that short and simple is best," replied the President. "I'll have my AA type it up and then we'll move to the Briefing Room to brief the press and then to the State Dining room at the White House for the official dinner before I leave for California. May I suggest, Dr. Danvers, that we not mention any specifics when we brief the press?"

"Will saying 'we have identified, discussed and made significant progress toward agreements in power, educational technologies, minerals, and agricultural products' be general enough for you?" asked Eliza.

"That would be ideal," said the President. "Are you sure you are not a diplomat?"

"No, Mr. President, I just had to run a university department and political negotiations are the same everywhere. And, of course, I had a few talks with Argo's Office of Diplomacy to help form Argo's position. But there is one more matter I need to mention before we leave for the Press Room, but it's not part of any potential agreement."

"Oh?"

"Yes. This concerns your Ambassador-designate, Dr. Lena Luthor."


End file.
